LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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Shelf „,.2Ti. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Elements of ^cience 



Moral and Religious. 



A. Text Book for Schools and 

General Use. 



t 



I 



/ 



BY 



S. A. JEWETT, M. A. 



Q» • in the very idea of it, has a character of 

OCienCe necess i ty an( j universality of thought that 
admits not of one-sided or sectarian views. 



FLEMING H. REVELL, 

CHICAGO: NEW YORK 

148 and 150 Madison Street. | 12 Bible House, Astor Place 




. 



3* 



Kntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 189c, by 

FLEMING II. REVELL, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

All Rights Reserved. 



PREFACE. 



This book is designed to meet a want that has always existed, 
and is now realized, namely: such treatment and presentation of 
Moral Philosophy as fits it for public school instruction in morals 
and religion without sectarian bias. 

Recent and earnest discussion in the leading quarterlies and 
other periodicals is a sure index of the importance of the subject, 
and of public interest in it. 

There is but one way to effect this: It is to point out the true 
idea in morals and in religion, and their relation to each other. 
In other words, to present the true underlying principles. 

In treatises on moral philosophy there is diversity as to the 
basis of morals. Pleasure, happiness, utility, the fitness of things, 
law, divine and human, are severally set up. These, indeed, are 
more or less auxiliary in the formation of moral character, but 
the underlying principle in morals is to be found in the disposi- 
tion to do right; in the love of the right; in the good will, the 
will obedient to the right, and existing in the moral nature that 
demands the exercise of the good will, demands duty. 

This accords with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Aris- 
totle, and also with higher authority — that of Jesus - who always 
refers us to the thoughts and intents of the heart as the source 
from which are the issues of life. 

Without this good-will, there can be no true moral act. With 
it there must also be intelligence to direct the activities of the 
good will. 

This moral intelligence we have from two sources: 

(i) The self-evident; as, for instance, it is immediately evident 
to any man of good common sense that it would be right to obey 
God/ 

(2) From the true idea in any thought, sentiment, law, institu- 
tion or moral object. 

3 



PRE FA CE. 



Man's highest end or chief good is, then, in a true moral nature, 
having moral truth in its activities. 

This principle, then — the true moral nature — acting from self- 
evident and ideal truth, must run through the warp and woof of 
all reasoning in constructive moral science. 

The idea, the type — universal law — is the philosopher's stone 
that discloses all truth. When he discovers it he sees its beauty; 
his soul is enlarged, and is transplanted from a condition of 
bondage into a realm of liberty. He sees a solvent for all the 
vexed questions of life, in its religious, moral, educational, social, 
civil and political aspects, and he rejoices in it. 

The Introduction finds distinctive ground in morality and re- 
ligion, yet an inseparable and intertwining growth of both in the 
soul, draws a clear line of distinction between natural and re- 
vealed religion, vet so that natural religion, together with moral 
considerations, naturally tend towards and lead up to spiritual 
tabernacles and to the entrance to Divine revelations. 

This affinity in morals and religion marks the place of religion 
in public school instruction; and this distinction between the 
natural and the revealed shows a line of demarcation between 
the work of religious instruction in the schoolroom and in the 
church. 

The intention is to exhibit moral science on a religious-moral 
ground — not specifically Christian. The phrase "Christian eth- 
ics" is sometimes used in a too exclusive sense, as though there 
were no other ethics of any value; but the teaching of Jesus and 
the apostles by no means ignores moral truth from other sources. 
The splendid contributions of ancient philosophy, of the Gen- 
tile world, as well as Old Testament law, are all referred to as a 
part of a grand system of ethics to which Christianity is com- 
plementary and is essentially necessary to fulfil the moral law. 
This recognition of Gentile philosophy was not necessary on the 
ground that a complete science of morality is not deducible from 
the Old and New Testaments, but is necessary, and is not to be 
lost sight of, on the ground that man, however demoralized, is in 
the image of God, and naturally there flames out from the 
divinity in him fitful fires of moral truth. 

But it is this acknowledgment by Jesus of what is universal in 
man that proves the roundness and completeness of his own 



PRE FA CE. 



character. It is Avith this knowledge of what is in man, and this 
perfect idea of the moral law, that our Lord says, "Think not 
that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not 
come to destroy, but to fulfil." 

Jesus then goes on to define the moral law more particularly, 
and to exhibit its true idea, according to which causeless anger is 
at the root of murder, and adultery is in the heart; the law of 
divorce is restricted and the "Love thy neighbor, hate thine 
enemy" is transformed into "Love thine enemies." 

The true idea of charity, or alms -giving in a private way, he 
distinguishes from the pharisaical and false one of "sounding a 
trumpet." 

In religion, also, he distinguishes the true spirit of prayer from 
its vain form; and at the same time gives a form of prayer which 
all men admire as natural and true, and hence it is of universal 
acceptance. 

Paul, too, in the epistle to the Romans, declares that "what 
men may know of God is manifest in themselves; that the Gen- 
tiles, which have not the law, at times do by nature the things 
contained in the law, and show the work of the law written in 
their hearts." 

This, then, is the attitude of Christian teaching towards mo- 
rality and religion. It supplies what is lacking in prior views and 
doctrines; it annuls nothing that is in agreement with the consti- 
tution of God or the true nature of man. 

This is recognized even by J. S. Mill, who at times indulges in 
caricature and misrepresentation; but in a mood of right reason 
he writes thus: 

"I believe that the sayings of Christ are all that I can see any 
evidence of their having been intended to be; that they are 
irreconcilable with nothing which a comprehensive morality re- 
quires; that everything which is excellent in ethics may be 
brought within them." 

American institutions should foster individual independence 
and self-reliance, for these qualities are necessary in the true idea 
ot a citizen of a republic. A man that has no independence of 
thought and action is poorly equipped for doing his duty to the 
State: so the young in our land need first to be taught as to the 
points of agreement in human nature — the necessary and uni- 



PRE FA CE. 



versal principles that pertain to it; when indoctrinated in what 
pertains to common interests, a sure foundation has been laid for 
well balanced thought and feeling. 

But the tendency of all sectarian schooling is to bias the child 
by the presentation of narrow views of duty to God and man. 
'Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined, 1 ' and this childhood 
bias dwarfs the man. The soul of man naturally inclines to 
feelings of sympathy. In view of this ideal, the frequent inquiry 
is: how shall the brotherhood of man be cultivated and promoted; 
how shall we be able to conform to the Scripture injunction "to 
look not each one upon his own, but each also upon the things of 
his neighbor?" Evidently this culture comes neither through 
secularity nor sectarianism, for secularity fixes the thought and 
interest upon mere affairs of the world, and sectarian culture in 
sectarian schools tends directly to erect barriers, to build up 
division walls, and to separate brethren instead of promoting 
brotherly love and the sentiment of a common origin and a com- 
mon destiny for man. 

Jexvett Mills, Wis. S. A. Jewett. 



The Synopsis is made somewhat full to give teacher and 
scholar the clue to the method of bringing out the text in 
recitation; yet not so full but that observation and remark will be 
suggested and elicited. They are in aid of obtaining and of re- 
taining distinct views. 

The Explanatory Notes are to obviate any difficulty the 
student might encounter in clearly apprehending ideas and forms 
of expression peculiar to Moral Science, and necessary to a con- 
cise and distinct presentation of it. The notes will also suggest 
to teacher and scholar other related ideas, and thus enliven the 
recitation and add interest to the study. 



CONTENTS 



PART FIRST. 
DI VISION 1. INTR OD UC TOR T PRINCIPLES. 

SECTION. PAGE. 

i. Ground Principle, ....... n 

2. Cicero in De Officiis 12 

3. Anciem Philosophy: Plato ..... 14 

4. The Leadings of Nature: Allegory of the Vine . 16 

5. The Labyrinth of Thought .... 20 

6. Kant: His Ethic Ground-Principle . . . . 22 

7. "The Good:" The Good- Will, the Summum-honum 25 

8. Morality and Religion: How related ... 29 

9. The Supernatural: In Religion, in Nature . . 32 

10. The Supreme Cause 3$ 

11. The Sum of the Argument 3S 

DIVISION II. PRINCIPLES: PSYCHIC AND MORAL. 

12. The Nature of Man 39 

13. Moral Philosophy: Its Laws .... 42 

14. Moral Science 43 

15. Moral Law ........ 45 

16. Written Moral Laws 46 

17. Religion: Natural Religion 49 

18. Focal Points in the Argument .... 52 

19. The Conscience ....... $3 

20. The Office and the Power of the Conscience 54 

21. The Authority of the Conscience ... 56 

22. Note on the Conscience 58 

23. The Function of the Will . . . . . 69 

24. Appetites; Desires; Affections .... 73 

25. Love: Love of God; of Country; of Gold . . 74 

26. Self-Love 78 



CONTENTS. 



27. Love to the Neighbor . . 

28. The Ground of Dlty. 

29. The Ground of Right . 

30. The Secondary Ground of Right . 

31. Principle; Practice 

32. Pivot Thoughts in the Principles 
>3- 



PART SECOND. 

DIVISION I. ETHICS. 

34. Ethics: The Practical; Its Source in Principles . 

35. Stringent Laws 

36. The Beatitudes 

37. The Virtues . . " 

3S. The Sentiments 

DIVISION II. DUTT; DUTIES. 

39. Duty the Element in all Moral Relation 

40. Duties to God ; Obedience ; Prayer ; Praise 

Love ; Faith ; Hope ; Duties to Man . 

41. Individual Duties 

42. Parental Duties ... . . . . 

43. Social Duties . 

44. The Ethics of Amusements ..... 

DIVISION III. POLITIC A L E THICS. 

45. General View: Special Applications 

46. The Substance of Liberty . 

47. Religious Liberty 

48. Personal Liberty 

49. Rights: General View 

50. Property Rights: General View . 

51. The Origin of Rtght to Property 

52. Land Title in the United States . 

53. Blackstone on the Right to Property 

54. Civil Liberty; Civil Rights 

55. Civil Duties 

56. Obedience to Law 



80 

80 

33 
86 

87 
88 
90 



97 

99 

101 

10S 

Ml 



127 

128 
135 

HI 

149 

152 



T 54 
158 
161 
163 
164 
166 
168 
170 
173 
i77 
178 
179 



CONTENTS. 



57. The Duty of Interest in Civil Affairs 

58. Suffrage: A Conditioned Right; The Ethics of it 

59. Liberty of Speech ....... 

60. Leo XIII on "Liberty of Speech — of Press" 

61. Veracity: The Oath; Honesty; Deceit Casuistry 

62. Reputation ........ 

DI VISION I V. IX S TITUTIONS. 

63. Institutions as to Origin and Character . 

64. The Idea in the Institution .... 

65. Institutions as Natural. Logical, Artificial 

66. The Sabbath 

67. Origin of Sabbath 

68. Time of Rest ....... 

69. True Observance ....... 

70. The True Sabbath 

71. Summary as to the Sabbath-day Institution 

72. Legislation Sabbatical ..... 

73. Thoughts on the Sabbath by Bishop Whately 

74. Marriage: Authority; Law ..... 

75. Requirements for the Marriage Relation . 

76. Prerequisite Qualifications .... 

77. Divorce 



78. The Theocracy 

79.. The State: Origin; Idea; Object ... 

80. The Church: Union of Church and State . 

Si. Disadvantages of a Church and State Union 

82. Public Education 

83. Family; State — Which? 

84. Capital; Labor: The Idea 

85. Union of Capital; Union of Labor. 

86. The Union as a Regulator of Wages 

87. Capital Combination as Abnormal 

88. The Labor Union as Abnormal . 

89. The Sum and the Moral: Suggestions 1 and 2 . 

90. Public Education 

Explanatory Notes . 

The Synopsis 

Index 



1S1 

183 

184 
188 
190 
199 



200 

203 
205 
210 
213 

2I 5 
217 
21S 
221 
224 
225 
226 
22S 
2 3 T 
233 
234 
236 
23S 
240 
242 
244 
245 
249 
250 
252 
252 

254 
256 

261 

277 
3°3 



PART FIRST. 



DIVISION I. INTRODUCTORY PRINCIPLES. 

i. Ground-Principle. — Most people are con- 
tent with any doctrine or theory of morals and 
religion, provided, as they say, the practice be good. 
Doctrine is nothing; theory nothing; practice is all 
in all. 

Yet, in truth, it is the act that follows the thought 
— not the thought the act. We must think right if 
we would do right. All great events and fruitful 
judgments, right or wrong, have first been generated 
in thought. 

Locke's theory of sense-knowledge, or of sensation 
as the ground of knowledge, gave occasion for David 
Hume's skeptical philosophy; that is, for Hume's 
questioning the certainty of any and all knowledge, 
for this was the logical result of Locke's erroneous 
theory, though Locke practically was no skeptic. 

Immanuel Kant 1 at once saw the necessity for 
quite a different origin as the ground-principle of 
knowledge, and in his famous Critique established 
this ground-principle within the mind — not, like 
Locke, outside of it. 

Just as in the science of intellect we stand in need 

^his word Kant and others thus noted refer to Explanatory 
Notes. 



12 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

of a ground-principle that insures certitude — such 
certitude as is assured by the reference of Kant's 
categories 2 of thought to a subjective, innate, or 
a priori origin ; just so in the science of morals we 
must look for a ground-principle that lies wholly 
within the constitution of the soul, else we find 
ourselves at sea upon the great problems of life. 

2. Cicero in De Officiis. — Cicero 1 in De Officiis 2 
notices that in philosophy there are many weighty 
and useful matters critically and copiously discussed, 
especially upon questions of duty as traditional, 
and as taught by the philosophers. For, says Cicero, 
there is no part of life, neither public nor private, 
whether you would deal 3 with yourself or whether 
you would transact business with another, from 
which it is possible to exclude duty. 

In the culture of duty there are builded all the 
virtues of life ; in its neglect is all baseness. 

But there are some schools 4 that, when the domain 
of morals is surveyed, pervert all duty ; for whoever 
so institutes 5 the chief-good 6 that he has nothing 
conjoined with virtue, and measures it by his own 
profit — not by what is honest — he, if he is con- 
sistent with himself, and is not meanwhile bound 
by the excellency 7 of nature, can cultivate neither 
friendship nor justice nor liberality. 

Surely in no manner is he able to be truly brave 
who judges pain to be the greatest evil ; nor can he 
be truly temperate who sets up pleasure as the 
chief-good. These philosophical systems, then, if 
they would be consonant with themselves, can say 



CICERO IN DE OFFICIIS. 13 

nothing about duty ; nor can any stable principle of 
duty conjoined to nature be put on record, except 
by those who say that honesty* is to be sought on 
account of itself alone, 

Cicero's Division of the Question : " The whole 
question of duty is twofold: One kind pertains to 
the Chief-good ; the other is placed in Precepts, to 
which in every relation the course of our lives must 
be conformed. Examples of the higher kind are of 
this sort, namely : Can all duties be perfected ? Is 
one duty greater than another? As to the precep- 
tive duties, they indeed pertain somewhat to the 
chief-good ; yet this is less apparent because they 
seem rather to regard the regulation of ordinary 
life." 

This division by Cicero of the " Question of Duty " 
into two kinds is of great value. It is the same as 
that attempted by all ethic writers — a division into 
Principles and the Practical. It is a generic distinc- 
tion that marks the limit between what we know in 
the domain of duty by prudential considerations and 
wise conclusions drawn from experience and what 
we know through the moral and religious sensibilities 
enlightened by the logic of the understanding and 
the reasoning faculties. 

The great search w r as and is for an underlying prin- 
ciple as the ground of duty, having the character of 
certitude. 9 

In his enrapt, sublime contemplation of honesty, 
truth and virtue, Cicero eloquently exclaims : You 
may see, O son Marcus 10 , the very form, and, as it 
were, the features 11 of virtue, which, could they 



14 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

indeed be looked upon with mortal eyes, would, as 
Plato says, excite in us wonderful desires for wis- 
dom's ways ; for what is more desirable than wisdom ! 
What more excellent ; what better for man ; what 
worthier of man ! Hence those who seek this are 
called philosophers. Nor is philosophy any other 
thing — if you will to define it — than the love and 
the study of wisdom. To say that there is no science 
of things chief in interest, while none of those of least 
moment are destitute of art, and independent of 
skill and knowledge, is the speech of men lacking in 
consideration and erring in matters of the highest 
import. 

3. Ancient Philosophy. — Ancient philosophy 
comes very near to a true science of morals when it 
inquires of nature for principles. Plato 1 sought in 
nature herself the philosophy of right living, and 
held that the cJiief-good consists in receiving from 
nature everything requisite for life, to-wit: health, 
strength and beauty for the body ; and as to the 
excellences of the mind, he noted a natural aptitude 
in learning, and faculties or disposition suited to the 
comprehension of virtue, by which a continued 
advance is made toward virtue. Virtue completed 
is a perfection of nature as to the mind — and is the 
chief-good. 

This philosophy placed a happy life in virtue alone, 
yet not the happiest possible unless the good quali- 
ties of the body are added to it ; namely, those 
things that should increase and maintain virtue; 
wealth, power, influence, society, the state, and 



ANCIENT PHILOSOPHT. 15 

whatever else helps or aids in acquiring a habit of 
virtue. ' 

From this view and exposition of the highest end 
in morals there arises a certain principle of action 
in life, and principle of duty, which consists in the 
preservation of those things which nature prescribes. 

In the doctrine of Plato, three kinds of good tend 
to make the chief-good : 

1. Living well in obedience to nature. 

2. Excellences of the mind, including the disposi- 
tion. 

3. Conditions which unite men in social relations 
under favoring circumstances. From this third kind 
Plato elaborated his ideal republic. 2 

The educational scheme of Plato commenced with 
a course of study having special regard, 

1. To the moral training of youth. 

2. To the training of their bodies — the due de- 
velopment of the physical powers. 

The first, the moral training, consisted largely in 
music and poetry selected with strict reference to 
its moral tone. Truth in literature was required by 
Plato, and truth to man's highest nature was re- 
quired in the nature and character ascribed to the 
gods — the heathen divinities worshiped by the 
Greeks. 

Thus Plato's idea of education was something 
more than a drawing out and development of the 
child's mental faculties. It meant not only this, but 
it meant also a purified soul, by excluding whatever 
was low, vulgar, frivolous in song and poetry, and 
whatever is unreal, untrue, fictitious and false in 



16 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

literature and art, and whatever tends to intemper- 
ance and excess ; and by exercising the vocal, mental 
and moral faculties in the contemplation, study and 
use of whatever in music, literature and art was 
recommended by sound reason and good taste. For 
further development of the mind in truth and the 
love of it, Plato prescribed the study of exact 
science — geometry. The logical use of the reasoning 
faculty completed the course of the young man des- 
tined to take part in the conduct of political affairs, 
and as a ruler in the service of the state. 

Value of this Ideal : Plato's scheme is good and 
true so far as it goes. It is chiefly defective in its 
narrow view of the needs of the State, which require 
not only cultured rulers, but cultured citizens as 
well. 

The morals of the Greeks and of the heathen 
world at large, in Plato's view, and as all see it, were 
indexed and strongly determined by the character 
ascribed to their gods — necessarily endowed like 
men with the virtues and the vices of men — a mere 
deification of the good and the gross in man. 

Hence the heathen god is no beau-ideal of virtue ; 
and the tendency is to reconcile men to those vices 
which they see in their gods. 

4. The Leadings of Nature. — Greek philoso- 
phy endeavors to show the way to the source of 
the chief-good by citing us to the leadings of nature, in 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; thus, " every 
animal loves itself and labors to preserve itself, for 
this is its first natural impulse. Each animal, ac- 



THE LEADINGS OF NATURE. 17 

cording to its own peculiar nature, has its own 
peculiar chief-good — the lion one way or use of life ; 
the lamb another way. Yet there is a generic sense 
in which the chief-good is common to all, namely, to 
live according to nature. 

Hence we can understand that the chief or highest 
good to man is to live according to the nature of man, 
when that nature is perfected and in need of nothing. 

Now, to apply this principle to self-preservation 
and a life according to nature, to man's ethic char- 
acter, we can say that man through his moral nature 
loves to preserve himself as a moral being. 

The Grape-Vine in Allegory 1 : This doctrine of 
man's living according to nature is finely and forcibly 
presented and illustrated in Cicero's De Finibus 2 by 
an allegorical representation of the condition and 
needs of the vine — first in its own vegetable kingdom 
and native state, as a wild vine with little capacity 
and power to preserve and develop itself, and as 
needing the care and aid of an expert vine-dresser to 
trim its tendrils, and to bring out its latent vigor of 
growth and capacity for producing its own generous 
fruit. Now, in lieu of the vine-dresser and his culti- 
vating hand, let us endow the vine itself with hands 
and with instinctive sense-faculties wherewith to 
take care of itself. The vine has now taken on and 
added to its vegetable nature an animal nature ; and 
its province, interest and care will embrace, to a 
limited extent, not only the culture formerly given, 
to it by the vine-dresser, but also the care of those 
limbs and sense-faculties, just now added to its 
original nature. 

2 



18 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

And if now we add to these sense-faculties, to this 
vegetable-animal nature, the faculty and gift of reason, 
the vine has intellect, and has become an intelligent 
existence, as well as a vegetable-animal ; and now the 
vine is able to take care of itself: to nourish and 
cultivate its original vegetable nature, with all the 
knowledge, wisdom and skill of the experienced vine- 
dresser. And while this must be regarded as its 
primary and leading duty, yet not less is the vine 
interested for its own good, and is under obligation 
to preserve intact and pure, and to protect and cul- 
tivate those sense and reasoning faculties, by means 
of which it is able effectually to maintain its original 
nature. And the vine, too, will soon discover that 
though each and every part of itself is essential to 
itself, yet that, if any part of itself is better than an- 
other, its wisdom faculties have the pre-eminence. 

This allegory of the vine, it is readily seen, repre- 
sents the condition and duty of man — himself from 
the beginning not only a vine-dresser — a cultivator 
of the vegetable kingdom, but much more — the cul- 
tivator also of a nature sensuous, intellectual, moral 
and religious. 

The entire range of known faculties and powers is 
embraced in his province of culture and duty ; and 
the chief-good, as Cicero views it, consists in giving 
to each and to every part its due and proper cultiva- 
tion. 

But the discernment of this precept as to the chief- 
good, and of this due and proper culture, has been 
regarded as beyond the unaided ken of man, and so 
an appeal for aid is made to the divinity — to the 



THE LEADINGS OF NATURE. 19 

Pythian Apollo, 3 who enjoins us " to know our- 
selves," namely, to know our own capabilities; and 
" this must include knowledge of those pursuits of life 
that are best suited to a virtuous enjoyment of life." 

That we are created with desire for this knowledge 
is evident when we regard the manner of children in 
their play and work ; for inquiry and observation is 
a part of their nature, and they are influenced by 
those virtues, the root of which is implanted in their 
very constitution. 

Ancient philosophy, as expounded by Cicero, 
sought a principle for man that preserves man ; a 
principle for nature that preserves nature ; but the 
true, the right, the honorable, as a principle, is an 
uncreated element that lies in the constitution of the 
Creator, and there has its seat and abode ; and this 
element or principle is honored and cherished by 
the Creator for its own sake. It is the essential ele- 
ment of his being. It preserves the being of God 
himself, for without it God would not be. We can- 
not, however, assume that God cherishes and honors 
this principle of the true and the right merely from 
the motive of self-preservation ; but purely because 
from the entire holiness of his constitution he 
loves the true and the right for its own sake— for its 
own intrinsic beauty and value. 

Just so is it in man, as the image of the Creator. 
Man obeys this principle — if, ethically, 4 he obeys at 
all, for itself — and not because the principle is pre- 
servative of himself or of nature ; for unless the true 
is obeyed for its own sake, it is not truly obeyed. 

The principle or element of the right preserves 



20 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

nature ; it does not reside within it ; it dominates 
nature. The principles or laws of nature in them- 
selves have no influence in making life happy. 
Contra to this, happiness comes from obedience to 
those principles, in virtue of a distinct element or 
principle, to-wit : the true, the right, which must 
rule and dominate in all the relations of the soul to 
the principles of nature. 

It is only when we are controlled by this moral 
element that the principles and laws of nature have 
influence or are effective in producing happiness. 

Knowledge is good or evil, just as it is or is not 
dominated by virtue. 

5. The Labyrinth of Thought. — In the 
labyrinth of thought, opinion and doctrine in Ancient 
philosophy 1 what clue is there to lead to truth and 
knowledge? All follow nature as the guide to wis- 
dom. 

The Epicurean 2 sees pleasure in nature ; so pleas- 
ure is his chief-good. The Stoic 3 follows nature, 
for his first principle is, that "those things that 
accord with nature are to be chosen for their own 
sake." This attitude towards nature they call 
kathekon, the fit, the becoming, or the duty of main- 
taining oneself in his natural condition, for man's 
attraction is to what accords with nature; and by 
knowledge and reasoning he comes to place the 
chief-good in what the Stoics call omologia, agree- 
ment ; and this is to be sought for its intrinsic 
worth. 

" Duties," says Cicero, " proceed from first princi- 



THE LABl'RINTH OF THOUGHT. 21 

pies of nature ; so that it may be fairly said that all 
duties must be referred to the end of arriving at the 
principles of nature." 

Cicero here overlooks the fact that this is true 
only if there be no self-evident principles of nature. 
It is true that duties are referred to principles of 
nature, but not in the sense of " arriving " at princi- 
ples, so far as they are intuitive, for in this case 
obeying the principles of nature conveys a more 
fitting idea of duty. 

The Peripatetic follows nature, for his " happy 
life" is made complete by circumstances consonant 
with nature. Thus a sound and shapely body con- 
tributes to the happy life ; and an honorable act free 
from loss is more to be desired than honor with loss. 

The Stoic does not think so : with him virtue is the 
only possible chief-good. Herein is the happy life, 
which pain nor poverty can modify. Worldly goods, 
though desirable, have no value at all as compared 
with virtue, and hence in Stoic-logic cannot be a 
factor in the happy life. 

It is not alone nature external to man that we are 
to follow, but man himself is born with adaptations 
to the virtues, justice, temperance, and all others; 
also with a love of truth and a desire of knowledge, 
as is evidenced by the inquiring minds of children, 
always in pursuit of some new thing. Men, too, are 
born for companionship, for society and the civil 
state ; hence that branch of morals which the Greek 
calls politikos. 

But it is a knowledge of heavenly things that 
imparts modesty, and it inspires magnanimity to 



22 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

contemplate the works of God ; and justice, when 
we come to know the power, wisdom and will of the 
Supreme Ruler of the Universe. 

From the foregoing, we see that Ancient phi- 
losophy, from following nature to find the " highest 
good" — the summuin bonorum — comes naturally upon 
the trail to man's characteristics, man's soul-nature, 
as the true path in its discovery. The sentiments, 
feelings and acts of men show that there is a moral 
nature — born in them is their instant praise of the 
noble and the good, as is also their instant con- 
demnation of the mean and the bad. 

The great search of Ancient philosophy was for 
the chief-good, the highest end of man's life ; but 
whatever this be — pleasure, knowledge, virtue, re- 
ligion, a life according to nature — all agree that the 
chief-good in its fullness and completion is unat- 
tained, if indeed it be attainable. The cause for 
interminable discussion and unsatisfactory results in 
Ancient philosophy lies in the fact that the objective 
chief-good they sought necessarily depends on 
man's reason, which is liable to error. 

The same fault, from the same cause, characterizes 
the major part of Modern philosophy. But for a 
science of morality we are in need of a' principle that 
is attainable ; that can be characterized as necessary 
and universal? 

6. Kant: His Ethic Ground-Principle.— 
Kant calls the law of the moral nature, through 
which the soul is impressed with the ideas of the 
right and of duty, the categorical-imperative, 1 mean- 



KANT'S ETHIC GROUND-PRINCIPLE. 23 

ing thereby a universal law 2 that gives form to the 
intuitions 3 of the soul about itself, and its relations 
to other thinking, sensitive existences — such form as 
determines and makes the man conscious that there 
must be in these relations a necessary 4 element — the 
true and the right. 

The method 5 of the Critical 8 philosophy gives an 
a priori 1 character to knowledge. It is also the 
method of the Practical 8 philosophy, namely, Kant's 
Ethical System. As morality relates not to the 
material, or to objects of sense, but relates to what 
is rational, sentimental and spiritual — " the true," 
" the good," "the beautiful" in harmony — all de- 
sirable for themselves — separate and apart from 
aught else, there is for the ethic-principle yet wider 
ground for predicating an a priori character. 

In the theory of our understanding, 9 the cognitive 
relates to the empirical 10 — must have for its object 
an object of sense. This is the condition of knowl- 
edge — a sensuous 11 content. But in the moral intui- 
tion 12 there is indeed an object, but it is no object of 
sense. The object is found in the moral relations of 
the soul. Hence Kant was justified in giving posi- 
tive certitude 13 to the ethic ground-principle — to the 
categorical-imperative — with its character of neces- 
sity and universality. 14 

The understanding, aided by the moral sense, con- 
joined with the good-willed soul, intuits the self- 
evident 15 in the field of morals, and solves such 
questions as it cannot intuit. 

The first intuition is of oneself — one's own char- 
acter. The second is of the Creator — the Supreme 



24 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Ruler of the Universe. His authority is self-evident. 
When we see him through our intellectual, moral 
and spiritual vision — to obey him must be right. 
This is our intuition of duty in its abstract form 18 as 
universal law — obedience to the Supreme : " I come 
to do thy will, O God ! " Doing antedates knowing : 
duty is prior to knowledge: as Kant would have it, 
the intuition of duty is a product of the reason 
creating the idea of duty ; but this creation is not of 
an abstract form of duty which exists constitution- 
ally, but is of the idea of duty in its reference to an 
object. 

The system of Kant can be briefly summarized: It finds in 
the constitution of the soul faculties for cognizing nature, and for 
the discovery of truth. These faculties have a transcen- 
dental character; that is, to a degree they create the things and 
qualities perceived — the phenomena. 

There is in nature ground or substratum for a certain form or 
order; yet nature does not present herself and reveal herself to 
man's intelligence just as she is in her inner self. The primal 
elements lie concealed within herself. She appears to us in such 
form as the mind of man itself imposes upon the unknown con- 
tent. This form and order exists in the mind — has a prior 
existence. Nature was made for man, not man for nature — and 
without this prior existence in the mind, this order of nature 
would not be seen in nature. 

Nor is this a mere correspondence and harmony between 
mind and matter, for mind dominates matter, and compels nature 
to reveal herself in the forms that mind bestows upon her. 

The phenomenal world is the world we perceive and know. 
The noumenal is the realm in nature entirely beyond our cogni- 
tion. 

It will assist us to grasp the constructive, formative or 
transcendental character of the mind in the cognition of nature, 
if we reflect that there are laws of nature — for instance, the law 
of gravity — that subtle, inscrutable force pervading all matter — 



THE GOOD; THE GOOD WILL; &TC. 25 



so unknown, jet so well known as to its law of action; which 
is, that the attraction of gravity decreases as the square of the 
distance increases, exactly in accord with the geometrical 
properties of the circle, to-wit, areas proportional to the square 
of the radii; and geometry with its axioms, intuitions, theorems 
and problems is a science that has its seat, origin and source, 
not in nature, but in intellect. 

If also we reflect that mind must have preceded matter — 
preceded nature and her laws — the creative mind, in whose 
image is furnished man's mind; and being thus fashioned, must 
have analogous creative power. 

The soul of man is instructed, not by nature alone, as by a 
separate individuality, for without formative mind nature would 
be formless and incapable as a teacher; nor yet by mind alone, 
for without material to excite the mental powers, the forms of 
the mind would be empty — destitute of cognition, and without 
result. This prior existence and pre-eminence of mind over 
matter, in the constitution of nature, gives an a priori cast or 
character to our cognitions — to the knowledge of the soul in 
what pertains to the intellect, and in what pertains to moral law. 

We are not fettered and crippled by the slow and doubtful 
instruction of mere sense-perception, as the theory of Locke 
would have it. as well as the " Data of Ethics" in the Spencer- 
philosophy, in gathering information and instruction about an 
independent outer world; nor yet are we to soar in flights of the 
pure reason — with fancy and enthusiasm unrestrained by our 
sense-perceptions — into the regions of a pure idealism. 

But for understanding nature, and our relations to the 
Creator of nature, the soul itself has in its inner self a constitu- 
tional transcendental endowment to give form and law to what 
it thus is able to perceive, cognize and know of nature and of the 
Supreme Source of Nature. 

7. The Good ; the Good Will ; the Summum 
BONUM. — But how do we know that there is such a 
principle as "the good" 1 and our innate love for it? 
because we are conscious of it in our inner experi- 
ences, and because the existence of this principle is 



26 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

cognized by the consensus of our intellectual and 
moral faculties. 

We can conceive of the creation of a right consti- 
tution by an All-wise Creator, for what is right will 
live and abide, in virtue of its own inherent nature. 
We cannot conceive of the creation of anything 
wrong in principle ; for if wrong it would speedily 
go to decay and ruin, from its own inherent lack of 
a true constitution, just as an unbalanced fly-wheel 
would go to pieces by its own rough motion. 

The natural existence, then, of the right and good 
in human nature we are conscious of both by internal 
experience and by the intuitions of our intelligence^ 
which contradict the possibility of the creation of a 
moral being destitute of this principle of the right. 
And in accord with our intuitions is the scripture: 
"And God saw everything that he had made, and 
behold, it was very good." (Genesis I : 31.) 

Hence we are justified in positing in the moral 
nature the principle "the good," and the soul's love 
of it, for we love ourselves, and have right to, so far 
as we certainly see in ourselves the work of the 
Creator. And we are justified in positing, in union 
with the abstract good, an element of abstract duty, 
as an innate forceful tendency of the -soul to obey 
the Supreme, the Creator, in his office or function as 
a wise Law-giver and Judge. "Shall not the Judge 
of all the earth do right?" This tendency exists 
from no motive persuading to virtue through hope 
of reward or fear of punishment, or even from that 
grand idea and notion in Ancient philosophy, "that 
the dignity of human nature requires it;" but the 



THE GOOD; THE GOOD-WILL; ETC. 27 

true ground of right and duty lies deep in the Divine 
constitution — his holiness and our relations thereto. 

It is necessary to make a sharp distinction between 
the ground of morality and the ultimate end. The 
ground-principle is elementary; without it there can 
be no morals — no chief-good or ultimate end. There 
must be the " good-will" in unison with the univer- 
sal law — Kant's categorical-imperative, as a ground- 
principle to build on — a starting point. 

This we have by the constitution of human nature; 
but the will being free to act contra to this constitu- 
tion, our first care and chief-good — not our ultimate 
end — is to cultivate and preserve the good con- 
stitution. 

This done, the ultimate end is arrived at — if it be 
arrived at — as a necessary consequence ; for the 
good-will will act under the best instruction and in- 
formation it can obtain in its search after a philoso- 
phy of life in the concrete, namely, the specific 
duties of life. 

Obedience, then, to the voice of the moral nature 
demanding the right for its own sake, from love of it, 
is the "ground of duty." But Ancient philosophy and 
most of the Modern overlooking this ground-element 
have sought to discover the moral principle in the 
snmminn bonum, the chief-good, the highest end to 
which man should strive to attain, which effort, being 
a labor of the reasoning faculties and of our ex- 
periences, under the guidance of wisdom and pru- 
dence, has always been without certain result ; for 
both reason and experience, being liable to error and 
slow in a search for truth, can never assure us that 



28 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

we are on the right track ; or that we see clearly the 
highest, final or ultimate end of ourexistence, which, 
indeed, we must clearly see if we would posit in it 
the ground-principle of our duty and conduct in 
life. 

The search after a ground-principle in the lofty 
superstructure, and not in the corner-stone of its 
solid foundation, is what has given birth to so many 
pseudo-philosophical theories falsely called Moral 
Science. Whereas, when we realize that the true 
ground of duty is where Kant puts it — in the " good- 
will " obedient to law, to the intuitional universal 
law of duty — his categorical-imperative — then we 
have a sure start and guide in the path of duty. Not 
that every concrete duty is seen by intuition ; but 
it is this, that we by intuition do see the true ground- 
principle of duty — obedience to the " imperative " in 
the moral nature. But if we posit the ground-prin- 
ciple in the ultimate end, and say, for instance, that 
this end is " the love of God," man is destitute of a 
ground-principle that is universal law, for men do 
not love God. They ought to, and are so com- 
manded, but the fact is, they do not, except through 
obedience, self-discipline and contemplation of the 
Divine attributes. But the love of what is true and 
right, as an element or principle abstract from the 
question of a particular content or object, all men 
constitutionally have ; nor will any man deny it ; nor 
will any man deny the duty of obedience to it. 
This is "universal law," and is so recognized in the 
consciousness. This dominates the soul in obedience 
to the Great source of all truth and right. 



mora lit t and religion distinct. 29 

8. Morality and Religion Distinct yet In- 
separable. — The distinction between morality and 
religion has always been known. 

Noah Webster's definitions are exact. As to mo- 
rality, it is this: "The quality of an intention, 
an act, a sentiment, when tried by the standard of 
right." 

And religion he defines thus : " The recognition 
of God as an object of worship, love and obedience." 

The word religion, as derived from relegerc, car- 
ries the idea of collecting again, or of going over 
again in feeling, thought, or in speech, our relations 
to the Infinite One. Also, this derivation of the 
word religion is the one given by Cicero, an ex- 
cellent authority, namely, with Cicero, its meaning 
is: to read, study or contemplate anew and over 
again. But again others would derive it from reli- 
gare, to bind anew. 

Whichever the derivation, it does not appear to 
affect the doctrine of religion as a constitutional 
sentiment in human nature. Yet in spite of dis- 
tinctness in definition, morality and religion are so 
intertwined, that many people do not clearly appre- 
hend the difference, but speak of morality as a re- 
ligion ; and not a few, with false ideas of religion, im- 
agine that there is virtue in religion without the pos- 
session of morality ; and others, that morality, when 
highly cultivated, is all-sufficient without the aid of 
religion. 

Yet, as the elements of both morality and religion 
are inborn, the reasonable proposition is, that in all 
true religion there is a pure morality ; " by their 



33 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

fruits ye shall know them"; and that in all perfected 
morality there is pure religion. 

The one cannot be excluded from the other, yet 
the ground-principle of each has its own distinct 
origin. 

The ground-element of morality is in an inborn 
appetency, desire and love for " the true and the 
right," a guiding principle of the soul that tends to 
right action. 

Religion also is an inborn sentiment or natural 
law in the constitution of man — the ground of the 
religious nature, under normal conditions, being, in 
an innate respect, reverence, awe and love for supe- 
rior beings, and especially for that Supreme Being 
that exhibits perfection and holiness. 

The first, morality, is a pure sentiment of love for 
a true principle ; the second, religion, as pure relig- 
ion, is a sentiment of love for the Supreme Being, as 
manifesting in his constitution the elements of truth, 
righteousness and goodness. The one is love for a 
principle ; the other is personal love : and this second 
kind of love, religion, could have no ground of ex- 
istence without the first kind — the moral. 

There cannot be a morality false in principle, for 
the essence of morality is in the agreement of the 
moral forces of the soul which trend towards " the 
right," with the will, which determines to do right. 
And this agreement between the will and the other 
powers or faculties of the moral nature is intuitively 
known, or consciously known and apprehended. 
And so it is, that though by the opposition of the will 
the contra of morality may prevail, this does not 



MORALITY AND RELIGION DISTINCT. 31 

originate in a false moral nature, but in a badly ad- 
vised or a stubborn and bad will ; for there may be 
false ideas of morality, as when erroneous reasoning 
blindly leads the way, and with perverted judgment 
instructs the moral nature ; as when persecuting Saul 
verily thought himself in the path of duty till the 
Lord stopped him in the way. 

There can, however, be a false religion, as when an 
immoral divinity is worshiped from fear or from 
custom. Thus the chaste Lucretia adored the un- 
chaste Venus. But this adoration and worship 
lacked a moral element, and so, like all forms of false 
religion, tended only to the bad. 

Thus it appears that the essence of the religious ele- 
ment — its ground-principle — is in the object as well 
as in the subject, namely, the object feared and 
loved is necessary to the existence of fear and love 
in the subject ; and as this object is necessarily ex- 
ternal, the religious element cannot be pure a priori. 

Hence, when the object worshiped with fear, awe, 
reverence and love is in itself an unworthy object, 
devoid of a pure moral constitution — this object 
being, as just recited, a constituent and necessary 
element in the religious ground-principle — the reli- 
gion founded upon it must necessarily be false. 

The distinction, then, in morality and religion is 
radical, while yet their close affinity and neces- 
sary conjunction is also radical. This, then, is the 
mark distinguishing true religion from false : the 
true is objectively moral ; the false, objectively 
vicious. 

Hence, there can be no hesitancy as to the proper 



32 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

attitude of the State or the Government towards 
religion. 

A religion that tends to morality, that coexists 
and flows onward with it, can safely be tolerated and 
protected ; but a religion that tends to vice is desti- 
tute of the moral element, and cannot be protected 
without danger to the stability of the state itself. 

Thus, if the constitution of the United States, 
by a wide-open policy, debases the quality of citi- 
zenship by inviting thereto the Pagan and the Mor 
mon, of vicious moral tendency, then the constitu- 
tion needs amendment in this regard. 

In a true religion there may be many false wor- 
shipers, but the state cannot distinguish here the 
true from the false — as it can between true and false 
elements in religion — elements, not doctrines. 

9. The Supernatural in Religion; in Na- 
ture. — But in religion men see the supernatural, 
and object to a science of religion, on the ground 
that we have certain knowledge only of the natural. 
There is, however, a supernatural in the natural — in 
the existences and the events of time ; and there is 
also a supernatural as to things external ; in other 
words, a supernatural relating to man's present life, 
and a supernatural relating to his spiritual life here, 
and in a future world. 

Scientists hold that the laws of nature are fixed, 
and never transgress their bounds; hence that the in- 
tervention of the spiritual in nature is contra to our 
experience and our reason, and cannot be admitted 
as fact and science. This view is true ; yet not all 



THE SUPERNATURAL IN RELIGION. 33 

the truth. Kant holds to certainty in the laws of 
nature, but shows that the certain natural effect can 
be predicated only of a (certain) natural cause ; and 
that the natural cause must originate somewhere in 
a supernatural cause ; and that this supernatural 
may be quite different in kind from the natural ; and 
may have power, and does have power, to institute or 
to interject another series of natural causes and ef- 
fects, without at all interfering with the general 
course of a prior series. This is certainly true as 
to what now concerns us — cause and effect in its 
moral aspect. 

For instance, in the first and second command- 
ments of the decalogue, God represents himself as 
the Lord, and as the deliverer of the Israelites from 
Egyptian bondage ; and also as a jealous God, insist- 
ing on his own rights — visiting iniquity and showing 
mercy. 

Now, the course of events here referred to by the 
Lord God is natural and logical, in that the Israel- 
ites should desire freedom to worship God, and that 
the Egyptians should refuse to give it to them, 
knowing as they must that the concession would end 
in the freedom of Israel and the loss to themselves 
of a serving people. 

In the natural course of events, the Egyptians, be- 
ing a powerful people and well armed with many 
horsemen and chariots of war, the time had not 
come for the exodus from Egypt. 

Moses' strong objections to undertaking the work 
of deliverance were valid ; thus : "And Moses said 
unto God, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, 

3 



34 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

and that I should bring forth the children of Israel 
out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3: 11.) 

It was evident to Moses, who well knew the power 
of Egypt and the weakness of his own people, that 
their deliverance could not be accomplished. 

In a physical sense, and also in a moral sense, there 
was a course of nature, and a law of nature, that 
forbade the attempt. Physically the Egyptians were 
strong; morally the Israelites were weak from the 
abnormal condition of servitude. 

We know that when an organization — the body, 
for instance — becomes diseased, it sometimes may be 
cured by a renovating process of nature, and often a 
diseased limb must be cut off; but in the case of 
moral disease, we cannot prove that there is ever 
power in the moral nature to renovate itself, for 
from the effect of our transgression " the whole head 
is sick and the heart faint." 

This was true as to Moses, till the Lord super- 
naturally, or by a manifestation of the Divine 
presence and help, infused into him wisdom and 
courage. 

This is the only reasonable explanation of Moses' 
subsequent alacrity in going forward in the work of 
the deliverance of his people. 

This chapter in Israel's history, though a noted 
one, is but a single instance and example of Provi- 
dential care over the course of nature ; and specially 
over the moral and religious nature, not only in the 
individual, but including the sympathetic and social, 
which tend to the formation of family, social, civil, 
political, national and international relations. 



THE SUPREME-CAUSE. 35 

10. The Supreme-cause. — As to the physical 
world, reason tells us that there is a relation of 
cause, and we are free to speculate as to whether the 
Supreme-cause acted once for all' on the content of 
nature, or whether his action is continued in a line 
parallel to nature. 

As to the religious and moral realm, its very exist- 
ence argues in like manner a causal relation ; and the 
abnormal condition of its existence — the religious 
nature being chilled, and the moral nature being 
perverted by sin and transgression — necessarily calls 
for a renovating power outside of itself ; and thus 
again we see that it is natural as well as necessary 
for the supernatural to intervene. 

Thus do we find the supernatural in the natural, 
and in science, physical, intellectual, moral and re- 
ligious. 

And all science — especially these — are of interest 
to the people individually and collectively, and are 
proper subjects of study. 

And now to briefly discuss the other relation, that 
of the supernatural in the spiritual. Wide ground 
for science is not claimed, namely, that which is uni- 
versal or is self-evident to every man's consciousness. 
Christianity differs from the religion of nature, as 
enunciated in the decalogue, in this: that it con- 
templates and provides for a new or for a supernat- 
urally quickened spiritual nature in man, by the 
power of the Holy Spirit, and by the gracious 
offices of a Redeemer. 

The supernatural, as first said, working through 
the good nature bestowed upon us by the Creator — 



36 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

good though now lapsed and fallen, as every man 
consciously knows, into an abnormal state — is a nec- 
essary factor and co-worker with us ; in the attain- 
ment of the right, and of a normal happy life ; 
hence the Divine utterance in the decalogue, and 
this is what man is under obligation to aim at. 

But the supernatural, in its reference to and at- 
tainment of a higher spiritual state for man now and 
hereafter, is a different matter, and has interest for 
the individual affected thereby, siagly and in spirit- 
ual assemblies. 

Herein is the work of the individual and of church 
organizations, namely, the work of the conversion of 
the world and of the perfection of the saints by spirit- 
ual means. 

This work is beyond and outside that of the edu- 
cational work of the public, as a community or as a 
state, through and upon the naturally religious and 
moral nature of man ; and the superspiritual work 
lies entirely within the province of the individual, 
and that of the spiritual congregations. 

This marks a clear line of separation between a 
science of religion and morals natural and logically 
supernatural, and the supernaturally spiritual; the 
former would include the evidence of Christianity, 
the latter regards the applied spiritual truths. 

It marks a line of distinction between the duty of 
the state in the education of the citizen, and indi- 
vidual and ecclesiastic duties in reference to the soul's 
spiritual welfare. 

It is the unity of the moral nature that holds men 
together, and this unity is manifest when the moral 



THE S UP RE ME- CA USE. 37 

nature or constitution of man is formulated in the 
true moral law — the decalogue. 

Its first introductory clause, " I am the Lord," 
gives unity and authority to all that follows ; assures 
men that they have in the two tables a true state- 
ment of the requirements of their own nature. 

When the Lord speaks, truth is uttered ; duty is 
made known; nor is it possible for us to look for the 
universal brotherhood of man, on any other basis 
than this a priori scientific basis that exists in the 
moral constitution of man. 

Set up .that there is no Lord, or that Baal is God, 
and we abstract from the moral nature of man the 
force and the power of its highest, deepest elemen- 
tary principle — that of obedience to itself; that of a 
soul without guile in the harmony of the Will 
with the moral sense, under the power of an 
active, living conscience, which is surely blunted, 
hardened, silenced when the Creator of this moral 
nature — when the Author of man's constitution, 
unwritten and written — when God himself is lost 
sight of. 

Hence the impossibility of solidarity in a people 
of diverse and strange gods — like the Jew or Chris- 
tian and the Pagan. 

Hence, too, the necessity in and among a nomi- 
nally Christian people for cultivation and education 
in morals and piety, or natural religion — those uni- 
versal that must underlie Christianity in all its 
varied forms. 

And hence the suicidal policy of an education 
that would overlook and exclude morals and reli- 



38 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

gion ; and not less suicidal, that policy that would 
build up sectarian schools on the ruins of public 
common schools, for the sure tendency of sectarian 
education is to the disintegration of a people. 

And no man can be accounted a wise citizen who, 
on the one hand, is possessed of the unnatural, irra- 
tional, and pernicious notion that morals and religion 
must be excluded from our public schools ; or who, 
on the other hand, holds to the no less pernicious 
notion that we should have no public schools, because 
either irreligion or sectarian opinions would be 
taught in them ; blind to the fact that there is a nat- 
ural, logical view, and a science of morals and reli- 
gion in man's nature — best made known in holy 
writ — that includes only the true, and necessarily 
excludes what is mere sectarian, and all that is false. 

ii. The Sum of the Argument. — The sum 
of the argument in these introductory or general 
principles is that Ancient philosophy, and largely 
Modern, by looking to final ends, can find no certain 
basis or ground-principle for a science of morals; 
but when we look to the inner man — to the God- 
given endowments of the moral nature — love for 
" the truth and the right"- — the " good-will" which 
Kant makes the central figure in the grouping of 
the moral consciousness — we find obedience to the 
teaching, to the logic thereof and to the imperative 
therein, to be a self-evident truth and duty, and so 
fit for a basis of science. 

This does not ignore the valuable contributions of 
empiric philosophy in discovery and experience. 



THE NATURE OF MAX. 39 

They are efficient aids, auxiliary forces in life's 
moral progress ; they do not lead the way. 



DIVISION II. PRINCIPLES: PSYCHIC AND MORAL. 

12. The Nature of Man. — a. The nature of 
man is fourfold : physical, 1 intellectual, moral and re- 
ligious, and volitional. 

The physical consists of the corporeal organization ; 
bones, flesh, blood, blood-vessels, vital organs, vis- 
cera, muscle, nerve, brain, with all the organs of 
sense — to-wit : sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell- 
ing — that belong to the body, together with the 
sensibilities to pleasure and to pain that are peculiar 
to the action of the physical nature. 

The intellectual nature consists of the faculties of 
the understanding and of the reason, including, as 
auxiliaries, memory, imagination, 2 consciousness. 

By the understanding faculties we are endowed 
with conceptions, to-wit : with the concept of quan- 
tity in space, or quantity as one or more, or all of 
similar things ; with the concept of quality as real or 
as unreal, or as of varying degrees ; with the concept 
of relation, as in the relation of things perceived 
(phenomena) to substance or some real existence — 
real, even though unknown ; the relation of an effect 
to a cause ; the relation of community, or of recipro- 
city, as in action and reaction. 

The understanding* in connection with the organs 
of sense perceives objects as they appear; for in- 
stance, a tree, a lake, a mountain ; has power to 



40 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

distinguish sounds, as of thunder, of music, of joy, 
of sorrow; to distinguish odors, as the fragrance of 
a rose ; and so is it, as to the organs of taste and 
feeling. 

By the reason, is meant that spirit power of pure 
thinking which is also called the pure reason — pure 
at least to a degree ; but the reason of man has limits, 
is finite, and however pure cannot grasp all truth. 

The reason 4 verifies the perceptions of sense and 
the conceptions of the understanding; counsels in 
the province 5 of the sensibilities and sentiments, 
moral and religious ; and with the aid of the under- 
standing devises means to accomplish ends ; argues ; 
infers; logically concludes; discovers the idea or 
type of being, or the elementary principle in any 
subject or object of thought; thus the great natural- 
ist, Cuvier, having from a single bone reasoned out 
and discovered the idea, was able to construct the 
entire skeleton of the extinct animal to which 
the bone belonged. Reason also speculates 6 in mat- 
ters beyond the range of the understanding and so 
beyond the realm of certitude. 

The moral and the religious, though distinct, are so 
closely allied that we here class them together. 
Their oneness and their difference have been consid- 
ered in the introductory principles. 

Through the moral sensibilities, in connection with 
the understanding and the reason, we perceive 
truth and falsehood, right and wrong, and just as we 
act in view of these moral perceptions we feel moral 
approbation or moral condemnation. 

The Will: The intellect when in exercise de- 



THE NATURE OF MAN. 41 

pends on the will. It can accomplish nothing with- 
out attention, and an act of attention depends on 
volition. Will power is, then, evidently an essential 
factor in the constitution of the soul. 

This fourfold division — physical, intellectual, 
moral-religious and volitional — regards the leading 
activities apparent in man : 

(i) His animal life and the play of his muscular 
powers, 

(2) The thoughts that employ his mind, 

(3) The feelings that exercise the sensibilities of 
the soul, \ 

(4) The will power to do what duty demands. 

b. But man in his very self, or in his essential 
nature, is a spirit inhabiting for a time a tenement 
of clay — the body ; and this spirit while in the 
body, with its adjunct powers of the intellect and 
the moral feelings, is called the soul — is the soul 
— the soul as the seat of the susceptibilities, the 
affections, having the pre-eminence, and so being a 
name to include the entire man — a name given in 
the scripture history of man's creation, thus: 
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust 
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life, and man became a living soul." 
(Genesis 2:7.) 

Scripture passages show a threefold division of 
man's nature into body, soul and spirit — the body 
being the seat of the animal nature ; the soul, the 
seat of the nobler affections ; and the spirit being 
the man immortal, whose sphere in this life is lim- 



42 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

ted by a certain subordination of the body and thr 
soul, and what the exact nature and extent of the 
ielation between spirit, soul and body will be is un- 
known ; however, we read : " There is a natural 
body, and there is a spiritual body" (I Corinthians 
18:44); an d so we can infer that the spirit has a 
body adapted to its state of existence in the life to 
come. 

The apostle prays, "that the whole spirit and soul 
and body be preserved blameless." (I Thessalonians 

5 = 23.) 

See note b. relative to Schlegel's view of the soul 

in the Philosophy of Life. 

13. Moral Philosophy; Its Laws.— Moral 
philosophy is the study of the moral nature and its 
laws. 

The moral nature is that state of the soul's exist- 
ence bestowed upon it by the Creator, whereby we 
may know that we are doing right or wrong. 

The first or primary law of the moral nature is, 
that we love and seek after the right, and hate and 
shun the wrong. 

The second law is, that happiness and joy accom- 
pany obedience to the primary law ; disquietude and 
anguish of soul accompany disobedience. 

These two laws of the moral nature have the same 
certainty as other laws made and constituted by the 
Creator ; as for instance, the law of gravity, when a 
stone tossed into the air falls back again to the 
ground ; or the law of affinity in chemistry, whereby 
oxygen and hydrogen unite and become water. 



MORAL SCIENCE. 43 

In either realm — the mora* or the physical — the 
operation of law may be suspended by opposing 
forces, or by adverse environment, yet the tendency 
to action remains. 

For instance, the fire in a stove that is tight may be 
smothered — combustion suspended — by closing the 
draught ; but as soon as the air is again let in, 
active combustion goes on. So the immoral — the 
criminal — may long escape the full punishment of 
misdeeds; but it is sure to overtake him. 

Men are convinced of the existence of the laws of 
matter by experience; so by experience are they 
convinced of the existence of moral law ; for men ex- 
perience in their own feelings the effects of obedience 
and of disobedience thereto. 

Scripture shows this certainty of moral law: 
"Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man 
that doeth evil ; but glory, honor and power to 
every man that worketh good." (Romans 2 :9,1c) 

Natural law is in the natural tendency to a certain 
motion, arrangement, state or order in matter ; as in 
the tendency of bodies to approach each other, or to 
fall together by force of gravity ; or to unite by 
chemical attraction. And natural moral law is in a 
tendency to certain emotions and feelings in soul and 
spirit ; as in the soul's natural emotion of love for the 
true, the right, the good ; and of joy in the cognition 
and attainment of these ; and of contra emotions, 
when the law of the moral nature is violated. 

14. Moral Science.— Moral science is an exhibit 
of the principles and the facts of moral law. 



44 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

The ground-principle in moral science lies in our 
obedience to that moral law, or moral nature, that 
• instinctively loves, tends towards and seeks the good. 
By the good is meant whatever is pure, true, right. 
This instinctive love for the good is also properly 
called an appetency for the good. 

The good is to be distinguished from a good. The 
good pertains to and inheres in the abstract notion of 
the pure, true and right, that belongs to the moral 
nature and is grounded in it. 

The good is found in whatever harmonizes with 
the pure moral nature. It is not the thing itself — 
it is not the veritable real feeling, thought or act 
that should be, and may be, in harmony with the 
moral nature; but it is that pure, right state of the 
soul that gives rise to and produces pure feeling, 
thought and act. The good, then, lies in the 
character of the soul as pure, right. A good is a 
right feeling, thought or act, in which the feeling, 
thought or act itself — separate from the good — pro- 
duces enjoyment either in the subject or the object. 

The good relates to what is good in a moral 
sense. A good relates to what is good in an ex- 
ternal or material sense. The good is abstract ; a 
good is concrete. 1 The good is in the love of the 
pure, true, right, because it is loveable, and we have 
an affection for it or a tendency or an appetency 
towards it. We love the beautiful for a similar rea- 
son or cause ; namely, we have a natural appreciation 
of the beautiful and admiration for it ; hence the good 
belongs to the true and the right in every form of it. 

The highest good : 2 A good cannot be a good in 



MORAL LA W. 45 



a moral sense except it be grounded in the right. 
It is the right in it, or at the ground of it, that makes 
any state or constitution a moral good ; hence the 
highest good lies in that from which all good pro- 
ceeds ; and as this is what the moral nature seeks 
after, it follows that man attains to his highest good 
when his soul is obedient to the voice of his moral 
nature seeking and demanding the right. 

The true is to be distinguished from truth. The 
moral nature has appetency for the true. The intel- 
lect determines what is true, or what is truth. The 
truth as to what men owe to each other — as to obli- 
gations — is truth about rights; hence rights is the con- 
crete in mutual obligations, and is the product of in- 
tellect. Rights impel to action — not necessarily to 
moral action ; it may not be right or duty to insist 
on rights. 

15. Moral Law. — Moral law determines the way 
a man should think, feel and act in accord with his 
moral nature, and implies that moral thought, feel- 
ing and action are necessarily followed by a certain 
effect. 

As natural law is conjoined with the notion of 
cause and effect, so moral law implies that a man's 
moral state or act is naturally, and so necessarily, fol- 
lowed by certain effects or consequences ; and these 
sooner or later prove to be either joyous or painful. 

The moral nature must have been given to man by 
the Creator, hence it has a necessary and imperative 
character. 

Wayland's Moral Science makes moral law denote 



46 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE 

an order of sequence between the moral quality of 
acts and their results. This enlarges the idea — as it 
should be — to include in the effects or results, not 
merely the effect upon the immediate actor or doer, 
but the effect upon all who may be morally responsi- 
ble, for moral law regards moral acts in their reality 
as facts — not merely the moral quality, as to the in- 
dividual doer, which is largely in the intent. 

When God says " Love me," he means a pure and 
true love in very fact and deed. This love accords 
with man's moral nature, when the true law of man's 
nature is free to manifest itself, or is free to act. 

No love of man's distorted imagination will fulfill 
this law. Saul imagined he showed love to God by 
persecuting the Christians. The moral quality of 
his act as affecting his personal guilt and liability 
was modified, but was not changed from bad to good, 
by his honest though mistaken intent. There is a 
degree of responsibility for doing a bad act even with 
honest intent. Saul's act was contra to the law of 
his moral nature, for that nature uses all the faculties 
of the soul in its search for the true and the right. 
Saul did not do this, but allowed himself to be sub- 
ject to the prejudices of his race, and his one-sided 
education. 

1 6. Written Moral Laws. — Written moral 
laws are the authoritative statement of rules to regu- 
late moral conduct; such are the commandments of the 
decalogue and other Divine precepts, as well as the 
regulations and laws found in accord therewith, and 
made and established by wise legislators. 



WRITTEN MORAL LA WS. 47 

The authority of moral law is either in the Divine 
utterance of it, or else in its evidently being in accord 
with the law of the moral nature, or both, namely : 
the wisdom and the Divine utterance of a moral 
law may both be evident. For instance, the first 
commandment is : " Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me." 

There is wisdom and there is necessity seen in this 
commandment when we reflect that the violation of 
it would contravene the native primary moral law of 
the soul, to-wit : its tendency to love the true and 
the right, for by the study of God in his word and 
work we see that he alone is the true, the right and 
the good ; and to set up another God, or another 
Good, would be to pervert, even to subvert, man's 
moral nature. 

And, too, there appears to be a necessity for the 
Divine utterance of this command, because without a 
display of Divine authority men might never have 
fully apprehended the wisdom of this first law of the 
decalogue ; and if necessity be in it, then its idea or 
type is that of a self-evident universal law. 

The moral act of obedience to the moral nature 
implies a will, whose office is to choose and to do 
the right act. 

From the view now given of the moral nature we 
see its function and the auxiliary faculties and 
powers. 

First, its innate appetency for the true, right and 
good and its mnate cognition thereof, when there is 
an a priori necessity, or. is ground for the self- 
evident. 



48 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Second, the reasoning faculty, that inquires into 
particular cases of right and wrong, and determines 
why this act or that act is right, when there is not 
self-evidence. 

Third, the will, that spontaneously, or of its own 
accord, chooses and carries into effector executes the 
right act or the wrong one. 

Fourth, the conscience, with its intuitive discern- 
ment or immediate knowledge of the disposition of 
the will to do wright or wrong, and with its power to 
give joy or sorrow to the soul, according as the in- 
tents and acts of the soul are good or bad. 

Origin of the moral : The moral nature is prior to 
the discovery and the discernment of relations between 
one's soul and some other being, and it lies at the very 
foundation of moral ideas. In accord with this is 
the tenor of the scripture referring to Gentiles 
"who do by nature the things contained in the law 
(Romans 2 : 12-15.) 

The context shows there must be good-will ; a 
conscience bearing witness ; and also intelligent ac- 
tion — the thoughts of the soul "accusing" or else 
"excusing," as to the determinations of the will. 

For this intelligent action, Kant gives the ex- 
pression, "Act always in such manner that the im- 
mediate motive of thy will may become a universal 
law." This — his categorical-imperative— demands 
that what we will to do shall, in moral aspect, be 
such as all holy intelligences — God, angels, and men of 
good-will and of sound mind— would pronounce true 
and right — right in motive and in act. This is sim- 
ply Kant's philosophic view and enunciation of 



RELIGION. 49 



Jesus' sublime precept commonly known as the 
Golden Rule. A similar sentiment was not un- 
known to the wise and good in the Pagan world, 
thus evidencing its universality as constitutional in 
man. 

The" moral," then, has a constitutional origin, and 
the varied departures from morality are due to an 
evil imagination, and to an imperfect and wrong edu- 
cation of the intellect and the soul. 

17. Religion. — The first commandment, in its 
first clause, " I am the Lord thy God," announces 
that there is religion, and that the Lord is the object 
of it. The second clause, " Thou shalt have no other 
gods before me," presupposes that the religion nat- 
ural to the soul is liable, on account of the evil 
imaginations of man's heart, and the influence of evil 
tendencies and motives — is liable to abuse, perver- 
sion, corruption ; and that this is the fact ; that there 
is retrogression in religion, as well as a progression, is 
proved by the history of every people, and by the 
biography of individuals among the most enlight- 
ened, civilized and Christianized. 

Natural religion, in its origin, is what religion a 
man has by " gift of nature ;" by the religious consti- 
tution given him by the Creator; and this gift is to 
be cultivated and perfected by the " light of nature " 
under the guidance of the moral nature, the under- 
standing and the reasoning faculties. 

Man sees some objects in the world which he un- 
derstands in part ; others which he knoAvs very 
little of. 
4 



50 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

The countless stars in the blue vault of heaven are 
beyond his knowledge ; the trees that grow up out of 
the ground he becomes familiar with, and enjoys 
their fruit and shade ; but how it is that they grow, 
he knows not. The hidden springs of life — these 
unknown forces of nature, and the varied objects of 
the universe incomprehensible in number and extent, 
fill the mind of man with wonder and awe, and he is 
necessarily led to ascribe their existence to a Supreme 
cause, whose existence he contemplates with fear 
and profound reverence. All things we refer to a 
cause, because man's mind is so constituted that the 
idea of cause necessarily arises when we see objects 
existing or in motion as the fixed stars in their places ; 
or the sun, moon and planets in their courses. And 
man contemplates nature with reverence for a like 
reason ; namely, he is so constituted as to regard 
with awe and reverence the unknown cause of na- 
ture, and is constituted with a disposition to obey 
the will of the great Author of all. 

This natural feeling of reverence for a superior be- 
ing is further cultivated by the discovery and dis- 
cernment of power, of wisdom and of goodness in 
his creations. 

Power is seen in the vastness of his works : " The 
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
showeth his handiwork." (Psalms 19: 1.) 

Wisdom is seen in all the forces, arrangements and 
adaptations of nature. 

Goodness is seen, in that the creations are de, 
signed to produce happiness and pleasure in sentient 
beings. 



RELIGION. 51 

This consciousness of limitation in his powers; this 
feeling of ignorance and inferiority and dependence 
in the presence of nature and of the Creator, together 
with the reverential feeling that naturally accom- 
panies it, is the foundation, the groundwork of nat- 
ural religion. 

So, too, we find that man has a natural love for 
whatever is true and right, and that is the ground of 
morality. 

These two feelings — reverence for the supreme, 
love for the true — though distinct as a religious na- 
ture, and a moral nature, yet flow on together as a 
religious moral element in the formation of character, 
or in the formation of a channel, or habitual course 
of right feeling and right doing. Religion cannot 
rise higher than morality, because morality is a 
necessary element in it, and keeps even step with it ; 
yet religion gives us sublime ideas of morality, 
because when the religious element is strong, 
cherished and enlightened, it permeates or leavens 
morality with a true conception of God, as the 
Creator, the Giver, Upholder and sure Vindicator of 
all law and order — the Holy one ; yet as the Father 
of Spirits — the Saviour of his people, and the foun- 
tain of good-will and loving care. 

By this sign 1 we conquer; we transcend the realm 
of intemperate desire, of evil surmisings, thoughts 
and imaginations. 

These first principles, then, are the foundation on 
which we build up a superstructure of character, of 
proportions grand, harmonious and beautiful, in all 
the varied relations of man to God and men. 



52 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

1 8. Focal Points in the Argument. — Focal 
points in the argument for natural religion, or for the 
existence of the Creator and his moral government: 

A. Design i. As shown in the affinities of certain elements; 
for instance, the elements of oxygen and hydrogen, that unite to 
form water. 

2. In these affinities being in accord with a law of definite pro- 
portions, without which there could be no adaptation to organ- 
ized existence; as, for instance, in the adaptation of air to the 
lungs, water to the stomach of animals and to the root of 
plants. 

3. Geology shows that physical forces within the earth have 
been used to effect results and conditions necessary, after long 
periods of time, to the existence of its flora and fauna and to man- 
kind; for instance, its primitive gigantic dense flora of no apparent 
use at the period of its growth, but after the accumulation in thick 
strata and beds securely covered up in the earth, is of use for the 
future civilized man. This view of the coal fields is equally ap- 
plicable to the iron-ore beds and other metals- — also to the most 
useful building rocks, and to the kind of forest trees existing in 
man's day. 

4. Physical nature shows gradual development and progres- 
sion, and as nature is finite, we logically infer that in time it ar- 
rives at its best estate. 

5. That this time has now arrived when man, as an intellectual, 
moral and religious being, has been given dominion over nature 
to control her forces, so far as he can apply them to his own use 
and benefit — hence that man must now be the chief object of in- 
terest, specially as to his moral and religious nature. 

6. As our globe in its imperfect chaotic state was to be valued 
rather for what it would be than for what it then was, so man is 
to be valued for what he is capable of rather than for what he 
now is. 

B. The sixth point suggests man as endowed with powers in- 
tellectual, moral, religious, capable of indefinite cultivation and 
improvement. To effect this culture man needs a standard of 
excellence and a rule of life. He looks in vain to his fellow-man, 
and the most gifted can see the ideal stand ard within their own 



THE CONSCIENCE. 



nature only by a colored light — hence the need of, and the argu- 
ment for, spiritual aid to give clear vision. 

C. Hence the moral law, originally limited to the idea of 
obedience in one regard 1 , was amplified to a canon of written 
law, which at the outset reveals the moral attributes of God, as 
the corner-stone of the law; and this revelation of God proves it- 
self to be a true one, because it is such as alone could be predi- 
cated of the Author of man's intellectual, moral-religious nature. 

There is thus reciprocity in revelation — the revelation of the 
Creator through himself and his creations, and the revelation of 
man's moral nature through conscious self and through the re- 
vealed perfections of the Creator. 

D. But the revelation of the perfect Creator makes evident the 
low estate of the creature, shows the need and renders probable 
the use of means to better his condition; namely, since his moral- 
religious nature is crippled and overruled by his corporeal nature, 
that there will be imparted to him additional spiritual power. 
This brings into view the scripture remedial dispensation — the 
Spirit-power in the Messianic realm and reign. 

19. The Conscience. — The conscience acts not 
singly, but is in joint action with other faculties, which 
together determine what is right, when all are in 
sympathy with the moral nature, which determines 
to the right; and when the right is perceived the 
conscience approves the soul's action, if it is in ac- 
cord with this perceived right, and condemns it if it 
be contra thereto. 

Conscience is a faculty, as a moral feeling or sensi- 
bility. Of itself it does not discover objective truth 
and right, but it is instantly sensible to the intent of 
the will as choosing to act in accord with or contra 
to the true and right. 

The office of the conscience is, in general, to warn 
the soul against being ruled and overcome by mo- 
tives that lead the will to wrong action — to actions 



54 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

contra to the cognitions of the moral nature. These 
are cognitions of the right, and are either intuitively 
perceived or else are discovered by aid of the under- 
standing, the reason and experience, when these fac- 
ulties and means are dominated by the moral sen- 
sibilities. 

Moral intuition is possible when the object of in- 
tuition is conditioned by a law that has necessary 
existence, or is universal and so becomes self-evi- 
dent. Thus we have an intuition of its being duty 
to obey God, because God, as the Creator of all, is 
necessarily supreme and sovereign. 

Some truths — physical, moral — are known by self- 
evidence, and some are discovered by the use of the 
understanding faculties acting singly or together. 
This knowledge the soul takes knowledge of by 
what are called cognitions of the consciousness — 
not that the consciousness is a separate faculty, or is 
indeed a cognitive faculty at all, but it is the con- 
current knowledge of two, of several or of all the 
faculties that necessarily accompanies our cognitions. 

20. The Office and Power of the Con- 
science. — The office and power of the conscience 
is best illustrated by instances of its use. In Way- 
land's Moral Science are several apt quotations from 
Shakspeare. This one illustrates the monitory 
power of the conscience. 

One of the men about to murder the Duke of 
Clarence, to his comrade, discourses thus : 

"I'll not meddle with it [conscience], His a dangerous thing ; 
it makes a man a coward ; a man cannot steal but it accuseth 



CONSCIENCE: ITS OFFICE AND POWER. 



him ; a man cannot swear but it checks him. 'Tis a blushing 
shame-faced spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom ; it fills one 
full of obstacles. It made me once restore a purse of gold that 
by chance I found. It beggars any man that keeps it." (Rich- 
ard III, Act i.) 

In regard to the agonizing struggle that precedes 
a meditated act of guilt, Mrs. Montague says : 
"Other poets thought they had sufficiently attended 
to the moral purpose of the drama by making the 
Furies pursue the perpetrated crime. Our author 
[Shakspeare] waives their bloody daggers in the 
road to guilt, and demonstrates that as soon as a 
man begins to hearken to ill suggestions, terrors 
environ and fears distract him. Macbeth's emo- 
tions are the struggles of conscience ; his agonies 
are the agonies of remorse. They are lessons 
of justice and warnings to innocence. I do not 
know that any dramatic writer except Shakspeare 
has set forth the pangs of guilt separate from the 
fear of punishment." This is the passage: 

* * * * "If but this blow- 
Might be the be-all and the end-all here, 
We'd jump the life to come But in these cases, 
We still have judgment here ; that we but teach 
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 
To plague the inventor. This even handed justice 
Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 
To our own lips." (Macbeth, Act I.) 

The troubled and distracted soul under the influ- 
ence of conflicting motives, is seen in Brutus' solilo- 
quy about his cogitations and intents relative to 
Caesar ; thus : 



56 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



" Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar 
I have not slept. 

Between the acting of a dreadful thing 
And the first motion, all the interim is 
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream ; 
The genius and the mortal instruments 
Are then in council ; and the state of man, 
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
The nature of an insurrection." (Julius Coesar, Act II.) 

Courage in a good cause, fear in a bad one, is por- 
trayed in these lines : 

" What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted ? 
Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just, 
And he but naked, tho' locked up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted." 

(Henry VI, Act 3.) 
A like sentiment Solomon utters : 

" The wicked flee when no man pursueth ; but the righteous 
are bold as a lion." 

And Shakspeare this : 

" Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind, 
The thief doth fear each bush an officer." 

The voice of God : The power and function of 
the conscience as above noted refers the soul at 
once, not only to the judgment and condemnation 
of its own moral nature, but also to that- of the su- 
preme judge of all, whose law cannot be evaded. 

Hence appropriately the conscience has been 
characterized as the voice of God in the soul. 

21. The Authority of Conscience.— Con- 
science, the only impulsive faculty or sensibility that 
has authority: We can speak of the conscience as a 



THE AUTHORITY OF CONSCIENCE. 57 

faculty. It is the one faculty of the distinctive 
moral nature ; it is the categorical-imperative, just as 
there are several faculties of the understanding, to- 
wit: the category of quantity, the category of qual- 
ity, the category of relation or of cause. 

But as the conscience as a faculty is characterized 
by feeling — not, however, to the exclusion of intelli- 
gence — there is a tendency to class it with other sen- 
sibilities of the soul ; whereas, by its moral nature it 
is placed in a higher plane, far removed from every 
other sensibility by the entire diameter of a type of 
being, and it has authority over all other sensibility. 

This might be inferred from Kant's cognomen — 
the " imperative." 

Dr. Wayland and other eminent moral scientists 
make it the most authoritative of the sensibilities ; 
but this carries an erroneous idea ; for it is the only 
authoritative, the other sensibilities having no moral 
authority at all. 

They have force, power, influence, as motives to 
action, and these may be good or bad ; but good or 
bad they have no authority. The conscience, aided 
by intellect, sits in judgment upon each and all. 
The artistic faculties that give rise to our sensibili- 
ties for the beautiful and the poetical have a moral 
tendency, and so are akin to the moral faculty, but 
they are allies, not rulers; while those sensibilities 
that manifest themselves — the love of pleasure, of 
gain, of power — all lower forms of self-love — are 
neutral or else stand as forces opposed to the moral 
nature, and can have no voice in the determination 
of moral conduct. 



58 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

22. Note on Conscience. — Our rule must be not 
to turn aside from the true path of moral science to 
explore by-ways, to consider and discuss sundry 
theories; for to do this would extend and crowd and 
confuse the text, to the detriment of the design of 
this treatise; but not to leave in doubt students who 
refer to authorities, a brief explanation of the con- 
science theory, first as herein stated, second as 
others see it, will be expedient — for this, as involv- 
ing the ground of right and of duty, has great signifi- 
cance. 

To obtain a clear view of the matter, note — sec- 
tion 12, b.— that man is essentially a spirit endowed 
with a moral-religious nature, with intellect, with 
sensibilities, with will-power ; that in all that pertains 
to the moral, the moral nature is the central power. 
The conscience has its seat, its abode, peculiarly in the 
moral nature, and is a faculty thereof. When the 
conscience approves the will of good intent, or con- 
demns the bad, and so calls forth joy or self-reproach, 
its act of approval or the contra proceeds from moral 
sensibilities — not from the intellect ; but when the 
act itself as moral or the contra is judged, the judg- 
ment is obtained by calling in the aid of intellect. 

The moral faculty, even when it acts singly, is 
properly called conscience — conscientia — because in 
its primary act of cognition — the cognition of the 
will — it appropriates to its own conscious knowledge 
of itself — of its own proper nature, as loving the 
truth — the knowledge of the will's intent ; and ap- 
proves or condemns just as there is harmony or 
discord between itself and the will. 



NOTE ON CONSCIENCE. 59 

But the conscience may be aided by all its auxiliary 
powers — by an enlightened intellect, by a good-will, 
by cultivated sensibilities, aesthetic, moral and re- 
ligious ; that is, by sensibilities trained and habituated 
to normal action. Under this condition, this normal 
consensus of the moral faculties, which is called the 
moral consciousness, the liability to error is reduced 
to a minimum, though error there may be, for man, 
in his best estate, is not perfect. 

Contra to these views, there is a long line of 
writers who hold that conscience is not native to the 
soul, but is the product of force, as in the evolution 
theory ; or of environment, as in the Darwinian ; or is 
the product of associated 1 ideas, of custom, usage, 
law in the social relations of men ; or else is the 
product of intellect and the sensibilities applied to a 
consideration of comparative pyschology, namely, to 
the relative place and value of the desires and 
affections of the soul in their bearing upon the well 
being of the individual and of mankind. 

Among recent writers, this last is the view ably 
and eloquently argued at great length by President 
Porter, in his " Elements of Moral Science," with a 
weight of authority due to one of his distinction. 
Not to notice it, might be construed as avoid- 
ing it. 

As to the "functions of the intellect in moral 
activities and experiences," Dr. Porter [sections 
jcj-4-8\ after certain suggestions, to-wit: "That 
psychology leads to philosophy, prepares the way 
for moral science, and asks how the intellect acts in 
ethical processes ; but that it cannot answer this ques- 



60 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

tion without implying that the intellect also evolves 
certain products known as ethical cognitions or con- 
ceptions " — elaborately discusses said functions under 
the following heads: 

" I. Moral distinctions do not originate in the 
civil law. 

"2. Moral relations do not originate with society. 

" 3. Moral distinctions are not originated by the fiat 
of the Creator, and therefrom reaches the conclusion 
that the intellect does not derive moral relations 
from without the individual man, either in the form 
of information, or authority, or influence, but that it 
develops and learns them from within." 

" Our next problem," he says, " is to explain the 
processes by which they are originated within the 
man himself." 

But first Dr. Porter notices and discusses "the 
several theories which teach that the fundamental 
ethical concepts and sentiments are original ; that 
all these theories, however antagonistic in other 
particulars, have this in common — that they find the 
origin of ethical conceptions and feelings within the 
individual man, and wholly reject the doctrine that 
makes them the products of external influences and 
teachings." 

A concise statement of these theories runs thus : 

1. The theory of the moral sense — a capacity for 
the moral sentiments. 

2. The theory that " finds the original of our 
moral relations in the pure intellect, or the reason ; 
i. e., in certain ethical categories, which take rank 
with those that are fundamental to the intellect; 



NOTE ON CONSCIENCE. 61 

* the very notion of virtue implies the notion of obli- 
gation.' {Stewart.) What is true of the sentiment of 
obligation is true of the other -feelings, as of self- 
approbation or disapprobation. The relation is self- 
evident to the intellectual judgment or assent, and 
the sentiments or feelings attend them by an equally 
necessary but unexplained coherence." 

3. The theory that finds a faculty called the prac- 
tical reason, which presents to the will an authori- 
tative judgment technically called the categorical- 
imperative. To this the will responds by reverence 
which impels to action. This theory, as it would 
seem, is a combination of the two preceding, and is 
represented by Kant and his ethical followers. 

4. [Dr. Porter's theory.] " We hold that moral re- 
lations and feelings require no special faculty or 
endowment, whether it be called the moral reason, 
or moral sense, or practical reason ; but that they 
are the necessary products or results of two con- 
spicuous human endowments — the reflective intellect 
and the voluntary impulses or affections. . . . So soon 
as the intellect reflects upon the several sensibilities 
which are subject to the control of the will, as com- 
pared with one another, it must find a standard of 
ideal desirableness or worth for its springs of action. 

" According to this theory [continues Dr. Porter] 
the moral relations, so far as they are rational or in- 
tellectual, are not original categories, but are the 
necessary result of a special application of the 
category of adaptation or design. It also follows 
that the sentiments of self-approbation, obligation 
and merit, are also special applications of the com- 



62 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

monly recognized human sensibilities, as affected by 
man's free and personal activity when reviewed by 
man's conscious or reflective judgment. It follows 
that the moral nature or the moral iaculty are but 
other names for the human faculties when employed 
upon a special subject-matter, and in a peculiar 
manner. The products of this special but natural 
mode of activity are moral ideas and moral emo- 
tions." 

On the above brief yet fairly full extracts relative 
to Dr. Porter's theory of morals, comment must also 
be brief. His suggestion that psychology cannot 
inform us how the intellect acts in ethical processes 
without implying that intellect evolves ethical cogni- 
tions, suggests that Dr. Porter's theory of the origin 
of ethical thought and feeling is one of evolution, 
possibly as objectionable as the Spencerian, which 
he justly condemns; thus [his Elements, section 45] : 
"The evolutionist's theory of morals presupposes 
that the conception of perfect moral excellence, as 
an ideal, is the end or aim to which all social ar- 
rangements and influences tend and move; . . . but 
how did it come into being as a thought, if it were not 
previously existing as a fact ? . . . According to the 
law of evolution, the absolute morality in both ideal 
and law is yet to be evolved. What it will be and what 
it is to be are problematic ideas and truths, concern- 
ing which no man can affirm with positiveness who 
derives his ethical conceptions from the processes of 
evolution." 

Do not these same words of condemnation apply 
to a theory of morals like Dr. Porter's, that sets up an 



NOTE ON CONSCIENCE. 63 

ideal standard to be attained to by an intellectual con- 
sideration and comparison, in conscious psychology, 
of the ordinary human affect'ons, desires and motives 
as good and better, and a choice of the better and 
higher, prior to and as means for a production, 
generation or evolution of moral ideas and emotions? 
Dr. Porter, in section 48, values his own theory 
because it "develops and learns moral relations from 
within" and proposes to " explain the processes by 
which they are originated within the man himself." 
But what kind of a within is it? It is a within of 
ordinary motives impelling the will, which the intel- 
lect persuades the will to control in accord with the 
fitness of each to help attain to the ideal standard. 
This joint action generates moral emotions : " Ideas 
of right and wrong are, so to speak, the creations of 
the individual man." On the contra, the within of 
the second and third theories discussed by Dr. Por- 
ter, and which we have cited as above, is a within of 
an inborn moral nature endowed with " love of the 
right " and a conscious faculty employed about the 
instruction and control of the will. 

Assuming that Dr. Porter's " special subject-mat- 
ter" relates to " duty and the right," would it exist 
for man if man had not a special moral endowment, 
without which the understanding would not perceive 
moral relations, more than it would perceive world- 
objects, as objects of experience, if there were no 
mental faculties thus to interpret the impressions of 
sense? 

Dr. Porter cites, among others, President James 
McCosh as an advocate of the second theory above 



64 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



named ; but President McCosh, in his discussion with 
Dr. Hopkins, says: "We regard God as having a 
claim upon our love, not because we are necessitated 
to love him, or because all men love him, but because 
it is right, and men see it to be so at once." Here, 
though we see what is right, it does not necessarily 
follow that we do what is right ; the moral emotion 
does not respond to the intellectual cognition, as it 
ought to, to make good Dr. Porter's theory as to the 
origin of the moral ; nor does it alter the case even 
though we question Dr. McCosh's proposition, "that 
it is self-evident to man that God has a claim on his 
love." The fact is, " men do not see this at once," 
nor till after intellectual, moral and religious experi- 
ences, which would obtain slowly, were we to wait 
for the evolution of the moral and religious out of 
the intellectual, as Dr. Porter has it. Dr. Porter 
remarks upon the cultivation of the moral nature in 
an admirable manner, and his theory of morals is 
one of cultivation, progression, evolution. But the 
present inquiry is not about the cultivation of moral 
sensibilities ; it is about their origin. According to 
Dr. Porter, they are the product of reasoning upon 
a special subject ; but according to theories he con- 
troverts, they are inherent in man's soul-constitution. 
The affection of the mother for the child is 
natural — inborn — is not the product of reasoning 
about mutual relations, and this natural affection 
gives rise to an intuition of duty in ministering to 
its wants. Reciprocally there is on the part of the 
child a natural repose of faith in and of dependence 
upon its parent which gives rise to an intuition of 



NOTE ON CONSCIENCE. 65 

duty in obedience to the maternal voice. The same 
repose of faith 2 and of dependence characterizes the 
relation of the intelligent creature to the Creator, 
when this relation is not disturbed and interrupted 
by conscious transgression. 

But these affections and intuitions of du>ty presup- 
pose the co-existence of a moral nature and moral 
faculties, without which there could be no intuition 
of duty. Between the brute and its offspring there 
exist similar feelings of affection, faith and depend- 
ence, yet entirely destitute of any element or idea of 
duty, because there is in the brute no moral nature, 
though there is some degree of intelligence. 

Now we come to Dr. Porter's direct consideration 
of the conscience. His " Elements " (section 105) 
reads: "Conscience should not be used as an appel- 
lation for a separate or special moral faculty, for the 
reason that there is no such faculty. Every step 
and result of the preceding analysis has gone to 
show this." 

"Neither the intellect, sensibility nor will is known 
to exercise peculiar functions. The same intellect, so 
far as it knows itself, acts with respect to moral rela- 
tions under the same laws and by the same methods 
of comparison, deduction and inference as when it is 
concerned with other material. 

" Nor can we discover new and peculiar intuitions 
or categories, whether directly furnished by the in- 
tellect, or indirectly derived from the sensibility or 
moral sense. The only intuition which makes itself 
conspicuous is the intuition of adaptation which in- 
volves design. But this intuition, it need not be 



66 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

said, is in no sense limited to the moral intellect or 
moral reason, but is assumed as the postulate of sci- 
ence and philosophy in every form." 

Comment on the above: The substance of Dr. 
Porter's " preceding analysis," which he refers us to, 
and of his proof of the supremacy and sufficiency 
of the intellect conjoined with the will in generating 
moral ideas, is this : that intellect determines or de- 
cides between our varied sensibilities, affections, de- 
sires, as to which, under the circumstances, best accord 
with man's highest good. If the will chooses to act 
in accord with this decision, it is a moral act ; if not, 
it is contra to moral act. This theory ignores the 
conscience-y^a^/// not merely by the ipse dixit, 
"there is no conscience-faculty," but it ignores the 
warning power of conscience, which, knowing the 
intent of the will, warns it not to put it in execu- 
tion, if not a right one. If there be a warning 
power in conscience or in the moral nature — as poets, 
philosophers and all men have it — let us take notice 
that intellect, as intellect, does not warn, it can only 
advise. It is the moral feeling inborn that warns. 

As to the statement above cited, that " we discover 
no new and peculiar intuitions or categories," the very 
essence of the category is in the nature of the subject. 
The peculiar subject requires the peculiar category ; 
moral causes — a category of relation with the moral 
element in it. 

There is the difference and peculiarity of a type of 
being between nature &s external and our moral na- 
ture, and this difference gives peculiarity to the 
moral intuition and the category; lor in a disclosure 



NOTE ON CONSCIENCE. 67 

of moral relations and moral law, the function of 
intellect is not solely one of concepts and judgments 
under the categories of the understanding, whereby 
through sense-impressions we obtain a knowledge of 
the material world and its laws involving cause, effect, 
quantity, quality, degree. Nor is it an intuition like 
a geometrical axiom; nor is it a logical process of the 
pure reason, formal and destitute of content — but it 
is a pure, rationalized moral intuition which intuits 
the duty of obedience to the moral-religious nature, 
as loving truth and the right — hence the necessary 
judgment that this " love of the right " must be "for 
sake of the right." 

As to the quotation, " The only intuition which 
makes itself conspicuous," science, it is true, assumes 
or postulates that its subject-matter has system, 
form, design ; but what has this to do with intuition? 
If we could see the system, form, design in science 
by intuition, the road thereto would be easy — no 
need of close study. A locomotive or a watch 
shows its design not by intuition, but by study of 
its structure and use. In fact we cannot intuit 
adaptation, design, for these we discover by the use 
of the understanding through categories of relation; 
but the understanding does not intuit ; it connects 
intuitions into a synthesis, a unity of perception. 
The category has its own place and function; nor can 
we speak of it as " derived from the sensibility." 

The category gives form to impressions of sense. 
Sense-perception is not complete till the impressions 
of sense are cognized by the understanding facul- 
ties, and through the categories of quantity, quality, 



68 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

relation, are brought into an orderly synthesis, giving 
such order and unity to the object as makes of it an 
object of experience. 

This does not mean that the condition of the ob- 
ject is one of chaos, which the understanding facul- 
ties have to transform into an orderly arrangement. 
It means that the order in the object is seized upon 
by the a priori conditions or forms of the under- 
standing, and are made its own; for though these 
a priori faculties wait for the excitation of sense-im- 
pression, they yet evidently have the priority, for the 
continued activity of the understanding does not 
depend on the continued presence of sense-affection ; 
but by power of the imagination it creates objects 
of its own, which, though like nature, do not in re- 
ality exist in nature. This is the substance of 
Kant's theory of perception, or of a transcendental 
use of the understanding in the apprehension of 
the phenomenal object — vastly more satisfactory 
than the theory of a dead passivity of the un- 
derstanding in the reception of sense-impres- 
sion. Even Dr. Stirling, who, at times, "damns 
Kant with faint praise," credits him here with hav- 
ing " made a distinguished notch." But, it maybe 
asked, what have perception-theories to do with the 
conscience? Much, vitally much, for if our under- 
standing be mere receptivity, like a blank sheet of 
paper, instead of connecting given intuitions in ex- 
perience, we might, with Dr. Porter, predicate of it 
an intuition of design ; and as for categories, we 
would have no use for them ; if no categories, then 
there is no condition, form or faculty to the moral 



THE FUNCTION OF THE WILL. 69 

4 

nature ; and as Dr. Porter already has it, " there is 
no conscience-faculty." What we call conscience is 
merely " the product of the intellect and the will 
passing judgment upon the comparative place we 
should give to our affections, desires, motives, in 
view of man's highest ends." Conscience indwelling, 
abiding with love of the right, as the central power 
of the soul's moral nature, is thus extinguished, and 
along with this extinguishment is necessarily blotted 
out all innate idea of duty, and for lack of native 
moral sensibilities, like respect for what is excellent 
and superior in man, and reverence for God, we have 
no intuitions of duty — all duty is conditioned upon 
a study of what constitutes the highest good. 

On the contra, the doctrine of this treatise is, 
that man has within him by nature a love for truth 
and the right ; that this feeling or affection of the 
soul moves the intellect to formulate the principle 
that we should do right " for sake of the right," or 
from love of it — a principle that intellect would be 
incapable of formulating, except the idea were fur- 
nished by its perception of the " moral nature," as 
loving the right. 

This principle at once bears upon the Will, which 
must be governed by it in all its volitions, if it would 
be a good will. 

23. The Function of the Will. — The func- 
tion of the will is to execute — or not to — the 
thoughts, the desires and the affections of the soul. 
These may be with or without a moral element or 
character. 



70 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

George has set before him a plum and a pear, to 
take either. He chooses the plum. Here the will 
acts, but there is no moral element. 

His mother now comes in and says : " George, you 
must not eat the plum; you may eat the pear." 

Now, there enters into George's choice a moral 
element, which quite overshadows his choice of the 
fruit. 

He ought to obey his mother ; ought to put back 
the plum, and take the pear. He can, however, dis- 
obey and eat the plum, in spite of his mother's 
order. 

In his being able to subject his desire for the plum 
to the duty of obedience, and also in his being able 
to do what he ought not to do, namely, to disobey 
his mother, there is involved the idea or notion of 
liberty, or of the freedom of the will. 

The will, if pure and good, will act, in all moral 
questions, in accord with the soul's moral conscious- 
ness ; that is, in accord with the view of duty the 
soul has through the concurrent intelligence of the 
pure reason, the understanding and the moral 
faculties — experience inclusive. The freedom of 
the will consists in its constitutional ability to obey x 
or to disregard the dictates of the moral conscious- 
ness. 

That sublime harmony that exists between the 
liberty of the soul and its subjection to law can be 
conceived of — is a fact of consciousness, but yet is 
difficult to express. 

We say the will acts naturally, according to the 
constitution of man's nature, when it harmonizes 



THE FUNCTION OF THE WILL. 71 

with the moral nature ; but yet it is not necessitated 
so to act, except by moral necessity. 

Physical necessities — laws of nature — man cannot 
by will escape from. He can, though, from moral 
necessity ; and his will has liberty and ability to go 
contra to the law of his own moral nature. 

In physical law, the effect is positive, and can be 
estimated and calculated to a dot ; and will not be 
unheeded, except by a very stupid will. 

So in moral law, the effect is sure to follow, but it 
cannot be certainly estimated and calculated, and 
will often be unheeded by a proud, haughty, stub- 
born or depraved will. 

When the will acts in accord with and under the 
guidance of the true and the right, its action is free, 
voluntary, for the very idea of true freedom 1 in- 
cludes that of truth and right. 

The true, the right is not by man's constitution 
foreign to the will, but it is a part of its nature, and 
his freedom is not abridged, cannot be abridged, by 
his own proper constitution. It is abridged only by 
false reasoning, wrong feelings and bad motives. 

These are all of the empirical character. The 
spontaneity and autonomy of the will asserts itself 
when, acting in virtue of its own true constitutional 
principles, it sets aside these contra motives, and res- 
olutely pursues the right. 

Volitions do not have a time-relation like events, 
namely, effects from cause. Volitions are sponta- 
neous and are not determined. The will is acted 
upon by a certain determinate train of motives, that 
have a constant form and effect ; but the yielding or 



72 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

. s 

the resistance of the will is not a part of the train 
of cause and effect. 

Will-action is spontaneity originating in the will 
itself. It is freedom. 

Yet we find it difficult to say the will is free, 
while it is ruled by a sinful disposition ; and this 
difficulty has given rise, on the one hand, to a phi- 
losophy of entire independence of the will, as of a 
faculty or a personality of the soul, that, far from 
being subject to the strongest motive, has no con- 
nection with or relation to motive ; and on the other 
hand has given rise to a philosophy of " denial of 
freedom," as that of Bain. The idea of freedom 
and responsibility, coupled with indisposition, he 
calls a " metaphysical puzzle." 

The true doctrine of the will seems to be that the 
will represents the determinations of the soul — de- 
terminations not as to its judgments, but as to its 
acts, that the will is influenced and constrained by 
sundry motives ; but is not fettered and bound by 
them. The indisposition to act in accord with con- 
viction of duty argues moral weakness, not moral in- 
ability. It does not, however, abridge the freedom 
of the will, nor cancel responsibility. 

Will Defined : It is very difficult to make a defi- 
nition to cover every phase of the will ; but m 
accord with the view above given, the will may be 
defined thus : 

The controlling executive power and personality 
of the soul impelled by sensibility and feeling, yet 
when well-disposed, obedient to the voice of con- 
science, to the instructions of the understanding and 



APPETITES; DESIRES; AFFECTIONS. 73 

to the logic of reason, holding in check under due 
restraint wayward appetites desires and passions, 
and so giving moral power and dignity to the 
man. 

On the contra, the will bad or deficient in force 
and vacillating allows the propensities to run into 
excess ; fails in every duty and makes a wreck of hu- 
man nature. (Romans 8 : 13.) 

As personal, the will is the centre of the spirit in 
man, well disposed till enticed and led captive by its 
own fault in " minding earthly things." 2 

24. Appetites ; Desires; Affections. — Ap- 
petites: Hunger and thirst are appetites. 

These lead to or induce instinctive or else intelli- 
gent action in order to satisfy them. 

Each appetite is a peculiar sensation within the 
vital organ that craves food or water. 

Desires are 

1. Primary, as belonging to the constitution of 
the soul, thus: The desire of property is a desire of 
accumulation ; of pozvcr, comes from that of rule, 
influence, superiority, pre-eminence. We have, too, 
the desire of knowledge, of esteem and other desires. 

The primary desire is abstract, namely: is a feel- 
ing or longing for a class of objects abstract from the 
particular person or thing. 

2. Secondary : Secondary desires are concrete, 
and are the product of other affections. 

Love creates a desire for the safety and happiness 
— or, in general terms, for the good — of the loved 
object. 



74 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Love itself is secondary when it is generated or 
produced by possession. 

From the desire of acquisition we come to love 
the thing acquired. Having acquired gold, we love 
gold ; having acquired a friend, through love of 
society, or a fellow-sympathy, or social appetency, 
we come to love the friend. 

From the love of simple qualities perceived or 
imagined in a person — truth, right, beauty, purity — 
we love the person. 

This is the ground of true love between the young 
man and the maiden. It becomes " a good " when 
time and experience prove these virtues real and not 
imaginary. 

Affections: The natural affections are those ex- 
ercised in social and in family relations — as the love 
of a friend, companion, parent, child, and the love of 
home and one's country. 

These affections become sentiments when they 
give rise to thoughts and theories, opinions and feel- 
ings 1 as to what is economic, useful, honorable, 
proper, virtuous and right in relation to them. 

25. Love ; Love of God, of Country, of Gold. 
— Love, as moral, consists in love of the truth, of the 
right, of beauty, of purity, of modesty, of harmony ; 
in general, of whatever is clear and simple, not mixed. 

These constitute the principle of the good. 

The quality, good, is found in a harmonic fitness, 
as when God pronounced his w r ork good, because it 
was in agreement or in harmony with constitutional 
law. and with his desisrn in the creation. 



LOVE OF GOD, COUNTRY, GOLD. 75 



Love may be under the guidance of the reason, 
and only in this sense can it be called rational love. 
It has within itself no element of thought or reason. 
Love is not a reasoning of the soul, it is a pure feel- 
ing ; a pure longing for all that is beautiful, admirable, 
useful and good, whether in the reality or only in 
our imaginings. 

Love, though innate, exists at first in an elemen- 
tary inchoate state, which develops in the progressive 
life with varied tendencies in accord with the kind 
of object toward which it is directed ; among the 
noblest of these being the love of wisdom, or philoso- 
phy, love of country, of home, of friends, and highest 
of all, the love of things heavenly — the love of God. 

Law of Love : Unwritten constitutional law exists 
by nature in man. Written law is the exposition of 
law implanted in man's nature. The constitutional 
law of love is, that love seeks the loveable. But this 
love under the influence of the moral nature seeks out 
even the unloveable for their good. This now is love 
modified by a sense of duty; that is, when love be- 
comes a virtue, it acts under the force of moral sensi- 
bility ; so that love, instead of having in itself moral 
law, or instead of being a ground-principle in morals 
is by the moral law of right and duty seized upon 
and made use of, as a powerful auxiliary, in aid of 
virtuous ends. 

Our " love of God " is right love when we see God 
as he is. Here the " law of love" is " to love with 
all the heart." This is the right expression of the 
law of our love as to God, because God is assumed 
to be entirely loveable. 



76 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

As to man, the law of our love is "to love as we 
love ourselves." For companionship, the law of 
love is, to love loveable companions— not bad dis- 
posed ones. Here we love for like reason that we 
love God ; yet it would be absurd to apply the same 
law of love, to-wit, " with all the soul and strength." 
This law of love rules, and can rule, only when God 
is the object ; but cannot rule as to our love for a 
companion. 

Love of country is akin to love of property, but 
on a higher plane. We hold our country as a 
peculiar possession, to which is attached the love of 
home. 

The ethic law of this love is in a love that values 
one's country more than any material possession, 
but less than a moral possession ; or less than the 
holding fast to the right, or to a good conscience. 
The pure love of country is not always silent, but is 
often accompanied with a lofty enthusiasm, which 
leads to noble action and self-sacrifice. The patriotic 
men who, July 4, 1776, signed the Declaration of 
American Independence, in the cause of the country, 
" with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine 
Providence, mutually pledged to each other their 
lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor." 

In the love of gold the ethic law is, not to love 
gold, as the miser does, for its mere possession, but 
for the good use it can be put to. When this law 
does not prevail, this love becomes ignoble, sordid, 
base. 

There is, then, no virtue in the mere act of loving, 
but only in overcoming obstacles to a pure love. 



LOVE OF GOD, COUNTRT, GOLD. 77 

Love as concrete, namely, as having a natural or a 
personal object, can be no ground of right, for right 
itself is ultimate ; 2 yet love imparts to the moral 
faculties an enthusiasm of the soul in right endeavor. 
Hence we need not be led astray by the unfounded 
notion that the abstract principle or ground of right 
is identical with the highest incentive to the practice 
of the right. 

The principle of right, the abstract notion, the 
inborn desire, the appetency for the right, and the 
tendency to it, exists as a distinct moral faculty, or 
moral emotion, combining intelligence and feeling as 
to our relations with God and man. 

Our intuitive moral judgments and our moral 
reasonings act through this faculty, which also in its 
action is authoritative or imperative, not arbitrarily, 
but because clothed upon with truth and the right. 
This is the distinct view we must hold of the moral 
category, the imperative. But on the other hand, 
moral commandments, the decalogue ; the two great 
commandments, love God; love man; all moral 
rules and laws are for the purpose of giving the con- 
crete or objective meaning 3 and application of this 
moral principle, as well as for the cultivation and 
strengthening of it by use and practice. To this 
end love is enjoined as the purest and strongest 
motive power to influence the soul for good. 

The love of God with the whole heart, with all 
the love of which man is capable, cannot be attained 
to and applied to a discrimination and enforcement 
of the right, through the moral sense, without suita- 
ble methods in the study and cognition of God, in 



78 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

all those loveable qualities in which he reveals himself 
to the diligent and devout student in nature and in 
the word. 

The emotional nature of man, then, in its love for 
the truth, and for the maintenance of the right, is 
not to be identified with his emotional nature as 
shown in the love contemplated in the first and great 
commandment, and which goes out toward him who 
is the embodiment of the truth and the right. 

The former love, the first kind of love, the long- 
ing of the soul for whatever is true and right without 
a direct reference to any one object, is the ground- 
principle in the moral nature. 

The latter love, or the second kind of love, is love 
for an object, in which the qualities and character- 
istics of truth are seen to exist and dwell, and it has 
its origin in the first kind of love. 

It would be impossible for us to love God if we 
did not first have within us a ground-principle of 
love for the true and the right : 

"I could not love thee thus, [Luccista] 
Lov'd I not honor more." 

Nor would it be possible to love our neighbor 
without this same ground-principle, which, when 
possessed as a living active principle, is, as the 
apostle has it, "the fulfillment of the law." 

26. Self-Love, Instinctive. — We love our- 
selves naturally, but not from the moral nature. 

Self-love is sui generis, arising from itself, not 
from any other kind of love. It is compatible with 



SEE F- L O VE, lA r S TINC TI VE. 



moral love, namely, the " love of the true, the right 
and the good," but is not grounded in it. It is 
grounded in instinct. 

All animals — man included — have an instinctive 
dread of bodily harm. Self-love as instinct, relates 
to the preservation of what we already possess — not 
at all to the gratification of appetite. 

When we eat bread for the sustenance of the 
body, it is from self-love, or an innate desire of self- 
preservation ; when for sake of the pleasure in it, it 
is to gratify the appetite. 

Self-love can never become selfishness, except by 
a degeneration and by a passage from the bounds of 
a good nature to those of a base nature. Nor is 
self-love cold and calculating. It acts prompt, and 
by a natural impulse. We do not acquire anything 
through self-love; we only hold on to what we have. 
Hence one's self-love may be appealed to, and often 
is, as a motive to obey and follow the right. 

This, however, does not at all argue that "the true 
and the right " is not to be followed solely for the 
sake of itself — in accord with the true nature be- 
stowed upon man at his creation. It only argues 
that self-love or some visible good is a proper 
incentive to help the soul in its warfare against the 
hindrances that tend to divert it from a straight- 
forward course in its love of the right. 

That self-love is entirely distinct from selfishness 
is also apparent from the scope of the second great 
commandment — "love your neighbor as yourself" — 
which would have no value nor virtue in it, were 
self-love commensurate with selfishness. 



SO MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

27. Love to the Neighbor. — This love is 
grounded in moral love. Were our neighbor entirely 
loveable, we would love him necessarily, just as we 
love the true, the right, the good. It is a moral 

-necessity, and so is without the element of virtue. 

If, however, our neighbor is not loveable — has 
characteristics disagreeable and averse to true love — 
and we yet love him, this love is a virtue, and exists, 
not in the plane of self-love, but is contra to it. 

To love our unloveable neighbor is an abnegation 
of self. We sacrifice our natural feeling of love for 
the beautiful, the pure; our sympathy for what is 
like ourselves — for what we have experienced in our 
soul's associations ; we sacrifice these for the sake of 
the good, not of ourselves, but of our neighbor. 

Good may result to ourselves from this self- 
sacrifice, but if we do good to our neighbor merely 
for sake of the good resulting to ourselves, there is 
no self-sacrifice nor virtue in it. It then becomes a 
matter of self-love. 

The scope of the second great commandment is in 
this: We love our neighbor as ourselves, when we 
love him as we love ourselves perforce of our self- 
love, and when we, with the same instinctive readiness, 
minister to him in all things necessary to maintain 
in him life and its proper possessions. We are to 
have the same regard for his rights and welfare as 
for our own. We must not minister to ourselves at 
his expense, but may minister to him at our expense. 

28. The Ground of Duty. — It is the ground of 
what ought to be. Anyone can say what a duty is, 



THE a ROUND OF DUTY. SI 

can give a dictionary definition similar to Webster's, 
as a something which we ought to do or not to do ; but 
now what we seek is the ground of this idea of duty. 

Some say that the sense of duty is a natural inborn 
feeling elementary in the soul, and hence as a simple 
element cannot be further elucidated, or defined as 
to its essential nature. 

This is true of the naked abstract idea of duty, 
but when we say ground of duty, we mean to inquire 
what moral element in human nature gives rise to 
the abstract idea of duty. In Philippians 2 : 3 we read, 
" Let each esteem other better than themselves," 
and it would be difficult to find in words a fitter ex- 
pression for the ground of duty. It is in a feeling 
of self-abnegation for sake of all dear to us. 

When Lord Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar cries 
out to his men, " England expects that every man 
this day will do his duty," there was a reminder and 
an appeal to that sense of loyalty to their country 
by which every true Englishman valued his native 
land, her institutions and his kindred, friends, coun- 
trymen, and the government he lived under, more 
than he did himself — more than his own life even. 

It is this feeling of the soul, this affinity for other 
souls, that underlies the notion of duty — is its ground- 
principle. 

Lord Nelson's men responded to the call manfully, 
not because of obligation on account of their stipend 
of forty shillings per month ; not because the laws of 
England protected them in their rights ; not because 
of love for kin or for friend or loved one they had 
left at home, however strong the feeling. These 



82 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

considerations might, any or all of them, if called to 
mind, be proper incentives to duty; but they are 
not the ground of duty. That lies deeper. It is an 
inborn feeling of affinity that a man has for whatever 
is like himself, and which he thus necessarily regards 
as a part of his own being. It is natural and in- 
stinctive as the desire of self-preservation, which 
leads to prompt action without stopping to inquire 
into the reasons for it. 

There is an affinity or attraction in dead matter 
called gravity, by which each body of matter, large 
or small, tends towards all other bodies. We do not 
know what this force is, except by its effects. We 
know not the why nor the how, except that it is a 
principle in matter, that the Creator has put there 
of his own will and wisdom. 

Just so the principle of duty has been implanted 
by the Creator in the nature of man, each to act 
for the good of all others conditioned like himself. 
This feeling of duty has its source inherent within 
the soul — is a priori in character ; and is not to be 
debased by being grounded in the a posteriori — in 
external conditions and considerations. These have 
their value : they are motives to duty, but are not 
the primary law of duty. 

The ground of duty is, then, in the attitude of the 
soul towards kindred souls — in the elementary prin- 
ciple involved when we esteem others — when we 
gladly become servant to all, like the Master, who 
"took upon himself the form of a servant" — hence 
not in any servile sense, but in the sense of a native 
desire to do good. 



GROUND OF RIGHT. 83 

The idea of duty involves feeling more than in- 
tellect. Nelson's men could not have done their duty 
had they gone into action with the precision indeed, 
but yet with the coldness of a morning parade. 

In general, the idea of duty antedates and domi- 
nates that of the right, as it did with Lord Nelson's 
men ; but not always, for as to the moral precept of 
Jesus, " Love your enemies," it may be that we 
must find reasons for it, must argue ourselves into 
the truth of it, before we see the duty in it. 

And so it is as to the commandment, " Love God." 
If we know that Jehovah says this, we know that it 
is right and duty to obey ; but we cannot obey this 
commandment till our reason and judgment and 
moral feeling — the entire consciousness — or else the 
Spirit's power, convinces us that God is a being alto- 
gether loveable. 

Had this point been well considered, some dis- 
tinguished writers 1 on morals would not have mis- 
taken the ultimate end of man for the underlying 
principle in a science of morals, for to do so starts the 
seeker after moral truth on his voyage without rud- 
der or compass. He must do his duty by obedience 
to God, prior to love — before he can love — and 
exactly this is the philosophy of Jesus: " If any man 
will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." 
(John 7: 17.) 

29. GROUND OF RIGHT. — The primary ground is 
in the Divine constitution. It is in what is in the 
eternal existence — in the " I am." 

Some philosophers — Dr. Haven, for instance— 



84 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

argue that it is in the nature of things, and would 
exist even were there no God ; or that it is eternal and 
coexistent with the existence of the Creator. 

But in this attempt to set up and exhibit a ground 
of right outside the Divine constitution we ab- 
stract the Divine constitution, or the eternal Creator, 
prior to whom there could be nothing, and without 
whom nothing exists ; hence we abstract all — all 
ideas, all notions, moral or intellectual. The consti- 
tution of God must have preceded all nature, and 
hence all that is true and right in nature and in her 
relations. Hence the right and the true must be 
grounded in the constitution of God, which changes 
not : " Thou art the same to-day, yesterday and for- 
ever." 

This does not argue a lack of moral freedom in 
the Divine constitution. We are free when we act 
in accord with our constitution, yet can act contra 
to it. 

Our conception (idea) of God is of a Being that 
has power to act contra to his constitution, but who 
will not, for his will is holy. 

The idea of right as having an eternal existence 
unchangeable is correct ; but it is also a necessary 
idea that this eternal existence of the right has 
eternally dwelt in the Divine constitution, and neces- 
sarily belongs to it. 

It might seem that this question and this distinc- 
tion is not important, for Dr. Haven admits " that 
the will of God must be regarded as the rule of right 
and the standard of duty to man ; that will itself 
reposes upon the right and is conformed to it, and 



GROUND OF RIGHT. 85 

while it is not the source and ground of right, it is 
nevertheless the source of our knowledge of right — 
the rule of duty to us." 

But the value of a true doctrine in this regard 
lies here, namely, that if we set up a ground of 
right independent of the constitution of God, we 
have two Gods, a personal one in God the Creator, and 
an impersonal one in an absolute principle of right, 
which is not an ideal, *but is an eternal principle that 
should be obeyed, even though in so doing we might 
disobey God, the Omnipotent, and we thus reopen 
the question whether our God — the Creator — is 
altogether the good God, and whether he might not, 
and at some time may, disregard this impersonal in- 
dependent principle of the right. 

That the ground of right is in the constitution of 
God is further evident from the necessary conditions 
of a sufficient reason.* 

1. Truth and right are ultimate ideas. They must 
have their source in the primal elementary fount of 
existence, else streams of life flowing therefrom will 
not be permeated with pure life-imparting elements. 
This primal source can be no other than that eternal 
uncreate existence from which all created existence 
originates. 

2. We recognize the true ground of right when we 
see in it the source of the highest incentive to duty. 

By reference to section 2, we see that in the stand- 
ard systems of Greek philosophy, honesty is to be 
sought for itself alone, and not from any advantage 
to him who cultivates it ; and this seeking for itself 
alone is because of the beauty and excellence of 



86 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

virtue, if it be possible, as Plato says, to behold this 
beauty with mortal eyes. They, the ancients, 
sought this in an ideal perfection of humanity, and 
this is a legitimate pursuit ; but whence this ideal 
except from the Creator of humanity, who is the 
reality and completeness of all that is true and right? 
A true ground of right leads to a true concept of 
God, and to that of holiness. 

30. The Secondary Ground of Right. — The 
secondary ground of right is in Man's nature as in 
the Divine image. As we have seen, the idea or 
the notion of the- right is an essential principle of 
the Divine constitution — must be therein or no- 
where. 

Hence, if man was created in the Divine image, he 
of right has this same principle in his own constitu- 
tion. To act right, then, is to act in accord with the 
requirements of the moral constitution. 

The imperative ground of right is in authority — 
authority emanating direct from God — his acknowl- 
edged laws, or else the law of the " still small voice." 
This law requires truth to nature, hence in morals 
the true and the right are equivalents. Whatever is 
true, morally true, is morally right. 

We may hardly know the primary ground of right, 
namely, the constitution of God, or even our own 
nature. These require much study and reflection, 
and can never be fully known and apprehended ; but 
there is a certain authority in man's moral nature, 
called the authority or the voice of the conscience, 
and a sure authority in God's voice or revealed will, 



PRINCIPLE: PRACTICE. 87 

which is an evident, immediate and imperative 
ground of right. 

31. Principle: Practice. — Every science has 
its own principle, which, however, cannot always be 
readily applied to particular cases as they occur. 

Thus, in keeping accounts, we have the general 
law or principle that what is received is debit to 
what is given. This proposition is self-evident, yet 
its correct application in every transaction that occurs 
may not be so plain. In the general run of business, 
it requires experience and practice to determine in- 
stantly the proper journal entry, which, in each case, 
shall be in accord with this principle. . 

So, in the science of gunnery, the motion of the 
projectile is in accord with laws which can be formu- 
lated. In the art and practice of gunnery, not only 
the law or the leading principles must be understood, 
but there must be facility in their application to meet 
varying circumstances. 

Just so is it in morals : a knowledge of principles 
without a trained and experienced judgment in the 
use of them, will not enable a man to give a ready 
and a correct reply to the moral questions with 
which, in the affairs of a busy life, and under vary- 
ing circumstances, he is daily confronted ; and, on 
the other hand, without a knowledge of principles, 
his moral acts will have a mere empiric character, 
and can never assure of certainty as to the right. 
This condition gives rise to an uneven, one-sided 
character, in which fair virtue is disfigured by folly 
and vice. 



88 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Thus, religious zeal for a formal worship, unbal- 
anced by a true principle and spirit of religious lib- 
erty, gave rise to contentions and persecutions be- 
tween Jew and Gentile ; between Catholic and 
Protestant ;" and in the established church in Eng- 
land and in Germany between Conformists and recu- 
sants ; and nearer home, to that inconsistency and 
narrowness of spiritual insight which characterized 
the Puritans of Massachusetts when they expelled 
from their midst that man Rodger Williams, who, 
like Paul, was the personification of soul-liberty, and 
was the true exponent of that priceless " freedom to 
worship God," for the sake of which the Puritans 
themselves and the Pilgrims had braved all dangers 
and hardships in crossing the tempestuous ocean, land- 
ing upon icy, rock-bound coasts, and in effecting set- 
tlements in the wilderness of New England. 

This principle of conscience-liberty, soul-liberty, 
religious liberty, cherished by the little band of May- 
flower Pilgrims, was, August 1st, 1889, commemo- 
rated and emphasized by the dedication at Plymouth 
of a colossal Faith monument or Pilgrim statue f 
and this monument is not local merely, but it is na- 
tional in character, for it stands for that principle of 
religious liberty that enters into the laws and the in- 
stitutions of the American people. 

32. Pivot Thoughts in the Principles.— 
1. Some duties are self-evident, and our obedience to 
these helps us to discover those that are disclosed 
through moral law certified to by the judgments of 
our intellectual, moral and religious nature acting in 



PIVOT THOUGHTS IN PRINCIPLES. S9 

harmony, and so producing what is called an en- 
lightened consciousness, which, being subject to the 
imperfection and bias of human nature, gives at 
best only an incomplete ideal, and so affords ground 
for a necessary intervention of Divine instruction 
through laws written or uttered, and through the 
teaching and power of the Spirit. 

2. All considerations as to duty and the ground of 
duty lead to the underlying idea of right, as that upon 
which the idea of duty is necessarily imposed ; and 
that this idea of right must have its foundation in 
the constitution of that Supreme Being who is in 
himself the archetype of every true idea and exist- 
ence ; whatever is false having been wrought out by 
the vain imagination and disobedience of the crea- 
ture. 

3. That a just conception of Him — the ground of 
right — as of the Holy One, who is of "purer eyes 
than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" 
(Habakkuk 1: 13), is essential to insure in man a just 
idea of right and duty in all moral relations. 

4. That the ground of right, the ground of duty, 
the function of conscience, the chief-good, the ulti- 
mate-good, are all and severally distinct ideas, not 
to be confused, as sometimes happens, in philosophic 
investigations. 

5. Though the ordinary desires and affections ex- 
cite intellect and will to action, the moral element in 
this excitation is furnished solely by the presence of 
the moral nature acting through its faculties as a 
moral-sense giving out moral sensations, analogous 
to sensations from the outer world, finding access to 



90 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

the intellect and exciting to cognition and thought, 
a condition not possible were there no outer world 
nature. So nothing is possible in moral cognition 
without the inner world of the moral nature. Intel- 
lect and will sympathize with the moral nature, but 
do not originate it. 

33. Exposition of the Metaphysics of 
Morals. — This could be found in the preceding 
exposition of principles, but it is desirable to show 
distinctly what is meant by metaphysics of morals, 
and to give a summary view. 

If we look for definitions in the dictionaries we 
find metaphysics to mean, after or beyond physics, 
from mcta, beyond or after, and pJiusis, nature. 

It is said that the name metaphysics was given by 
Aristotle to some of his writings which he could not 
class with his physics, namely, with his 1 writings 
upon the science of nature — this term science of na- 
ture, in Ancient philosophy, being limited to the de- 
termination of the elements and laws of the material 
universe, including man's physical nature, but not 
extended to include the intellectual and the moral 
nature of man — so that these subjects of inquiry 
came under the head or classification by Aristotle of 
metaphysics, and have since retained that nomencla- 
ture, which even though given in the first instance 
much by accident, is a happy accident, for the word 
is quite appropriate, as the intellectual and the moral 
are quite distinct from the material or corporeal in 
man, as well as from those desires that have their 
seat in the lower affections of the soul. 



METAPHYSICS OF MORALS. 91 

After this general explanation of the meaning of 
metaphysics, let us consider what is meant by the 
metaphysics of morals. This is best done by taking 
an example to illustrate. 

Achan coveted a wedge of gold, stole it and bur- 
ied it in the earth in his tent. Now, in this transac- 
tion, which faculties of the soul were brought into 
action ? 

I. There was the desire to possess, to acquire 
something. This desire, when directed to a proper 
object, is a good propensity of the soul. It is to be 
regulated, not discouraged nor expelled from the 
soul's constitution. It acts, and should act, when not 
restrained for cause. The desire, then, for gold, or 
for aught else, is not chargeable with wrong, if any, 
in a natural desire. 

The second faculty of the soul concerned in this 
transaction was the will of Achan. 

Desire says, I want it ; Will says, take it. This 
determination of the will may have been instantane- 
ous under the pressure of strong desire, and with 
little opposition on the part of other faculties ; or it 
may have been after deliberation. In either case the 
will is the executive of the soul's desires and deter- 
minations. 

The act, even though done on the spur of the mo- 
ment, must have been briefly debated, as to its pro- 
priety, and then approved or condemned. This 
brings into view those faculties of the soul whose 
function it is to sit in judgment as to the quality of 
this act of Achan in taking the gold. The moral 
sensibility of Achan's soul lifts up its voice and says, 



92 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Achan, you should love the right and do what is 
right. The reasoning faculties of Achan say, this 
wedge of gold, Achan, is not yours; you know you 
have no right to it. 

Conscience, the consensus of the united voices of 
the moral faculties, is now aroused ; yet desire is 
strong, the will is bad, and the bad deed is done. 

But Achan is seized with fear and remorse and 
confesses his guilt and meets his fate. Now, the 
higher faculties that are here introduced into this 
scene, as actors, are the will, as having an independ- 
ent action ; the moral emotion or sensibility which is 
constituted to love the right — what is true and right ; 
and the intellect which is able to perceive and state 
the conditions or circumstances which should deter- 
mine the will to let or not to let the soul have what 
it desires. These three, the will in its autonomy, or 
as having freedom to do as it pleases to do, right or 
wrong ; the moral emotion of the soul as loving the 
right; the intellect with its idea of the ground of right 
and of duty, and its intuitive and logical judgments as 
to what is right, all belong to the higher nature of 
man, as a spirit, and not to his lower corporeal, phy- 
sical nature, like those appetites, affections and de- 
sires that are intended to minister to the wants of 
the body; these are physical, but those are spiritual, 
and so metaphysical. 

Hence, the metaphysics of morals is that part of 
moral science which determines its higher elements 
and laws. These elements are said to be a priori in 
character, because they are ultimate principles, inde- 
pendent, cannot be referred to anything higher, 



ME T. 1 PH 1 'SICS OF M OR A L S. 



though the moral clement has the pre-eminence, be- 
cause the will, though at liberty to do as it pleases, 
should please to do right in accord with the moral ; 
and, too, the intellect should subordinate its think- 
ing to this dictum of the moral — the ought. 

All three, when acting together, rightly make a 
moral-imperative — a categorical-imperative, so far as 
relates to the formal law of duty, right for sake of 
the right, and so far as particular duties are intui- 
tively discerned. 

From this it appears that the will is a prime factor 
or element in the metaphysics of morals ; for how- 
ever wise the moral reason may be, it is destitute of 
authority without concurrence of the will, which 
concurrence it will have provided there is a good 
will. Hence, the attainment of a good will is the 
highest end of moral instruction and discipline. 
When this chief-good is reached, is possessed, we 
readily gain possession of the minor joys of life, 
such as the pleasures of the imagination, of aes- 
thetic and intellectual pursuits, of society, of friend- 
ship, and, in general, those that arise from a faithful 
discharge of the common duties of life, including 
the practice of the virtues, and above all those en- 
joyed in the possession and cultivation of a true re- 
ligious sentiment and faith ; but without the good- 
will, no other good thing, however good in itself, can 
have for us any value. 

An absolutely good will may not be attainable in 
this life ; but a comparatively good will can be at- 
tained to. 

Suppose we have this, and that the elements in 



f>4 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



the metaphysics of morals are working in harmony, 
what can they accomplish ? This is the one question 
wise men ask. Some philosophers think nothing 
can be done, for the reason that these elements do 
not appear to them to have any materials to work 
upon — any object in sight ; and so not perceiving 
any use for these metaphysical elements, they doubt 
their very existence. Other philosophers think 
these elements have a virtue in them able to accom- 
plish all moral good. 

The proper view is that these a priori elements 
are essential to the accomplishment of anything 
at all ; that they do accomplish much by direct 
action, and indirectly all ; namely, that what is 
done by the a posteriori or the empirical elements 
is auxiliary. 

In the direct action of the a priori elements there 
are intuitions of duty which do not require experi' 
ence for their verification ; and there is the forceful 
determination to good acts of an organization of 
faculties designed to point out to the soul of man, 
and to every intelligent moral creature, the general 
principle of the morally true and right ; and by this 
concurrence of the faculties to give an impulse, im- 
petus, to each faculty that has a part to act in effect- 
ing a right conduct of life. 

Experience has much to do, and often it requires 
bitter experiences when the a priori faculties are at 
fault, and do not act well their part ; when the will 
is not good or the intellect is obtuse ; when the 
love of the moral nature, which naturally loves the 
right, is perverted and deadened by abnormal 



METAPHYSICS OF MORALS. 95 

causes — by s«in and transgression — when " the whole 
head is sick and the whole heart is faint." 

In such cases, experience, and terrible experiences, 
providentially come to the aid of the inner man — to 
scarify and blister the diseased soul into a condition 
of healthy action. 

Here, then, we have the metaphysics and the em- 
piric of the soul ; and this is about the sum of it : 
they are not opposing doctrines and forces ; each 
has its own sphere, and there need be no conten- 
tion. 

The certainty of moral law is known only by the 
a priori elements or sources of moral cognition, the 
voice of the moral nature in favor of the right, the 
intuitions of the intellect determining the right, and 
the power of the conscience to give pleasure or 
pain give us a logical judgment upon the doctrine 
of good or ill desert. Whereas, if experience be 
our only guide, or our primal one, we are left in 
doubt as to the Divine intention in regard to man's 
final state. The observation or experience of the 
psalmist, in Psalms 13, his painful doubt as to God's 
moral government when he " saw the prosperity of 
the wicked," is evidence that the empiric character' 
often misleads. 



PART SECOND. 



DIVISION I. ETHICS. 

34. Ethics, the Practical; Its Source in 
Principles. — We have considered the moral and 
religious nature of man endowed with active facul- 
ties, as embodying elements and principles upon 
which, when rightly exhibited, to base a science of 
ethics ; namely, of moral laws, rules and precepts 
to guide us in the discharge of duty, and in the 
maintenance of rights. 

The study and exposition of principles implies a 
philosophy thereof; and ethics, as the enunciation of 
moral law, implies a knowledge of principles. 

Ethics, 1 or Practical Morality, is then derived from 
principles. The source of ethics can be referred to 
the source of its principles which lie in the secondary 
ground of right, namely, in man's moral nature, 
elucidated by a just idea of the primal ground of 
right, the constitution of Jehovah, 2 and enforced by 
the authoritative ground of right, God's will, as in- 
terpreted by revelation thereof direct, and indirectly 
through the judgments of the enlightened intel- 
lectual, moral, religious consciousness. 

Ethics is the application of principles in the 
practice of virtue. Scripture ethics is not merely 
a didactic statement of what ought to be, but is 

7 91 



98 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

also a positive authoritative announcement of what 
ought not to be. 

The first part — the ought to be — consists of uni- 
versal principles and precepts applicable to all time. 

The second part — the ought not — is animadversion 
and denunciation of the prevailing errors and vices 
of the times, and served not only for the then pres- 
ent, but, by way of example, it serves for any and 
all transgressions and immoralities and sins in all 
times. 

The moral law as a formal ethic utterance, in its 
essential elements and fundamental requirements, is 
exhibited in the Ten Commandments, and is further 
summarized in the two great commandments. 

In the decalogue and in the summary thereof our 
relations to God hold the first place, are first con- 
sidered and enunciated. The first commandment 
announces the authority that lies at the base of the 
decalogue, " I am the Lord thy God." 

This authority is self-evident. The sovereignty of 
the Lord God, the Supreme Ruler, no man can 
question; and he reminds the unstable people of 
their special obligation to him in bringing them out 
of Egypt, the house of bondage, and of the great 
display therein of his might and power, by way of 
enforcing their obligation to heed now his authority 
and commandments, and primarily and specially to 
give heed to this first commandment, " Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me." 

The second commandment forbids the worship 
of the invisible God through the representation of 
the Godhead by means of idols, or images of any 



STRINGENT LAWS: NBCBSS/TT OF. 99 

sort, for in reference to a true worship Jesus teaches 
thus: 

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the wor- 
shipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth ; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 

" God is a spirit, and they that worship him must 
worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4 : 23, 24.) 

Hence it is evident that the true worship of God 
is the worship of a personal God by the consecrated 
feelings of his intelligent moral creatures. 

This commandment, not to bow down to nor serve 
other gods, the Lord emphasizes by the declaration 
that he is a jealous God, " visiting the iniquity of the 
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth 
generation of them that hate me" — "showing mercy 
unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my 
commandments." 

Every one from self-examination will see that diso- 
bedience tends to alienation and separation between 
himself and the Lord ; and that a cheerful obedience 
tends to union and love, peace and joy. 

35. Stringent Laws and Necessity There- 
for. — With reference to the Canaanites and other 
heathen peoples, it is said : 

" Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor 
serve them, nor do after their works ; but thou shalt 
utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their 
images." (Exodus 23 : 24.) 

" Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor 
with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, 
lest they make thee sin against me ; for if thou serve 



100 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee." (Exo- 
dus 23: 32, 33.) 

" Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or 
molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the 
work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it 
in a secret place : and all the people shall answer 
and say, Amen." (Deuteronomy 27: 15.) 

These laws and regulations, and others of like 
sort, are often objected to by kind-hearted people 
on account of their severity ; but they will be re- 
garded as proof of God's good will when it is con- 
sidered that no code of laws except a very stringent 
one would be effective in securing stubborn Israel 
from affiliation with the idolatrous peoples around 
them, and so thwarting the intention of God to 
make himself known as the One True God, loving 
righteousness and hating iniquity. 

In the knowledge of which ground-principle in 
the constitution of the Creator, rests the well-being 
and the happiness of mankind. 

The third commandment, which forbids taking 
the name of the Lord in vain, is violated when 
God's name — any of his holy names — are made use 
of lightly to express vexation with oneself, or im- 
precation of another. 

Specially is his name taken in vain when we make 
a false statement under the sanctions of his name, 
swear falsely under oath, or make promises under 
like sanction. 

A more extended notice of this subject will be 
found under the head " Veracity." 

The fourth and fifth are considered under the 



THE BEATITUDES. 101 

heads " Sabbath" and " Filial Duty," and most of the 
other commandments come under special heads. 

This brief view has been given of the first three 
commandments relating specially to the great Law- 
giver, because therein is valid testimony and the 
sufficient reason in confirmation of the logic of our 
intellectual and moral consciousness in positing the 
ground of right in the constitution of God. " Love 
with all the heart, soul and strength." " Be ye holy 
as I am holy," are the high requirements ; and the 
student in moral science and the lover of moral 
culture will do well to lay it to heart that these are 
not idle words, but point to the veritable goal to be 
reached. 

36. The Beatitudes. — General View : The Ten 
Commandments form a summary of Divine require- 
ments and of duty. More specific or particular 
duties come under moral precepts, sentiments, vir- 
tues, or other suitable heads. 

The best statement of moral precepts is to be 
found in the Beatitudes ; in the Sermon on the 
Mount. (Matthew 5.) 

The blessedness of the poor in spirit, of those 
that mourn, of the meek, of those that hunger and 
thirst after righteousness, of the merciful, of the 
pure in heart, of the peace maker, of the persecuted 
for righteousness' sake, are sentiments in accord with 
man's intellectual and moral constitution, hence are 
of universal acceptance, and are admired by all. 

The ethic character in the beatitude is to be found 
in the reasons given for the blessedness, in the 



102 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

beneficent results flowing from the exercise, from 
the activity of these kindly humanizing qualities, 
these graces of the soul. It is not meant, nor can 
it be implied, that this exercise and activity are dis- 
played for the sake of the reasons and the results ; 
not at all. The peculiar result that surely follows 
each of these blessed states is a pure moral result ; 
it tends to the moral perfection of the soul. The 
action is that of cause and effect in moral relation. 

The consideration of the Beatitudes is, then, 
strictly within the bounds of moral science. 

The First Beatitude : " Blessed are the poor in 
spirit ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 

As to the first beatitude, as it affirms that the poor 
in spirit possess the kingdom of heaven, which is 
peculiarly God's kingdom, or a spiritual kingdom, 
the phrase " poor in spirit " must relate to one's 
humble opinion of himself — of his own fitness for 
the kingdom of heaven ; for if he had a high opinion 
of himself, that very circumstance would be a dis- 
qualifying one. No man can come before God with 
the arrogance of a puffed-up spirit, to claim as his 
own right, or on his own merit, an entrance into the 
kingdom of heaven. " Except your righteousness 
shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and 
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom 
of heaven. (Matthew 5 : 20.) 

The Scribes and Pharisees were very particular to 
observe the letter of the law, to pay tithes of anise 
and cummin ; but they neglected the spirit of the 
law — justice and mercy. 

For the character of the Pharisee, we read : — 



THE BEATITUDES. 103 

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one 
a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee 
stood and prayed thus with himself: 'God, I thank 
thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, 
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast 
twice in the week ; I give tithes of all that I possess.' 
(Luke 18 : 10-14.) And the publican standing afar 
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto 
heaven, but smote upon his breast saying: ' God be 
merciful to me a sinner.' " 

The Pharisee illustrates the self-righteous, proud 
and haughty in spirit; the publican, the meek. 

The Second Beatitude : " Blessed are they that 
mourn ; for they shall be comforted." 

We mourn for loss of property or of friends, but 
this does not restore them. This mourning may 
have a soothing effect to mitigate the poignancy of 
grief ; but blessedness is found only in that mourn- 
ing over our departures from moral rectitude which 
is accompanied with genuine repentance for our 
transgressions, which cleanses the soul, and restores 
it to joy in God's presence. They that thus mourn 
are comforted and blessed by an assurance of God's 
returning favor and acceptance ; that favor which 
had been lost to the transgressor. King David's 
prayer in Psalms 51:10, 12, is: "Create in me a 
clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within 
me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." 

The Third Beatitude : " Blessed are the meek ; for 
they shall inherit the earth." 

The meek do not lack in courage ; on the contrary 
the meek man is intrepid and brave, yet never pro- 



104 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

vokes a quarrel ; is not on the watch to see if 
somebody has insulted him; is not over jealous 
about his rights ; is fitted, too, for leadership when 
meekness is conjoined with a clear conception of 
duty. Thus Moses led out his people from Egyptian 
bondage, and of this Moses it is written : " Moses was 
very meek above all the men which were upon the 
face of the earth." (Numbers 12:3.) 

The Fourth Beatitude : " Blessed are they which 
do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they 
shall be filled." 

Its Definition : Righteousness, as in substance 
defined by Noah Webster, means: A quality or 
state of exact rectitude. It comprehends holy prin- 
ciples and affections of the heart, and a conformity 
of the life to the Divine law. 

The true principle of righteousness is, then, to be 
found in the love of righteousness, thus: "Thy word 
have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against 
thee." " I will delight myself in thy statutes." 
(Psalms, 119: 11, 16.) 

The righteousness of the Pharisees, however ex- 
cellent in their own eyes, was formal, precise and 
superstitious — hence was a false righteousness, of 
no value, and of no ethic character; Jesus said 
to them: "I will have mercy and not sacrifice." 
(Matthew 9: 13.) 

This is a form of speech which does not condemn 
sacrifice, but gives to mercy the preference. " God 
is no respecter of persons ; but in every nation, he 
that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is ac- 
cepted with him." (Acts 10:34, 35.) 



THE BE A Tl TUBES. 105 

All men by nature love righteousness. If any do 
not, it is because their good nature has been spoiled 
by not giving heed to its constitutional requirements. 
This love of righteousness must not be a mere 
formal, theoretical, sentimental, lukewarm love — 
such as unfortunately characterizes to a degree all 
men ; the blessing is not for a character of this sort, 
it is for those that hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness — a strong figure of speech — for hunger and 
thirst are very imperative appetites. 

It is the duty of man, with divine aid, to educate 
himself to this high standard of righteousness. 

The Fifth Beatitude : " Blessed are the merciful ; 
for they shall obtain mercy." 

" With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merci- 
ful." (II Samuel 22:6.) 

The Divine displeasure against those who lack in 
mercy is thus stated : " For the Lord hath a con- 
troversy with the inhabitants of the land, because 
there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God 
in the land." (Hosea4:i.) 

" Let anyone who is conversant with the variety of 
human life reflect upon it, and he will find the man 
who wants mercy has a taste of no enjoyment of any 
kind. There is a natural disrelish of everything 
which is good, in his very nature ; and he is born an 
enemy to the world. He is ever extremely partial 
to himself in all his actions, and has no sense of 
iniquity but from the punishment which shall at- 
tend it. 

"The law of the land is his gospel, and all his cases 
of conscience are determined by his attorney." 



10G MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Balthasar's argument with reference to Shylock's 
idea of compulsory mercy is unrivaled for force and 
beauty of thought in depicting the true idea of 
mercy, thus : 

" The quality of mercy is not strain'd, 
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, 
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blest; 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes; 
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown; 
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 
The attribute to awe and majesty, 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; 
But mercy is above this scepter'd swaj r , 
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; 
It is an attribute to God himself; 
And earthly power doth then show likest God's, 
When mercy seasons justice." 

Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Sc. 1. 

The Sixth Beatitude : " Blessed are the pure in 
heart ; for they shall see God." 

To see God is to dwell in his presence. It is only 
the pure in heart that have this privilege. " Keep 
thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the 
issues of life." (Proverbs 4: 23.) 

" The man who lives under an habitual sense of 
the divine presence keeps up a perpetual cheerful- 
ness of temper, and enjoys every moment the 
satisfaction of thinking himself in company with his 
dearest and best friend." 

The Seventh Beatitude: " Blessed are the peace- 
makers; for they shall be called the children of God." 

Peace is the natural condition of man. All desire 



THE BEATITUDES. 107 

the blessings of peace, especially after having ex- 
perienced the miseries of war. Men rush into battle 
with a shout, but the return with tidings of an hon- 
orable peace is an occasion of great joy. " How 
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him 
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace." 
(Isaiah 52:7.) 

A millennium of peace may not soon prevail in the 
earth, yet the labors of the peacemaker are blessed 
in restraining the anger of men, and in mitigating 
the evils of war ; and the peacemaker, peace-society, 
and the peace-congress for settling international dis- 
putes are of great utility, and have a divine mission 
as being in this regard the ministering "children of 
God." 

The Eighth Beatitude: " Blessed are they which 
are persecuted for righteousness' sake ; for theirs is 
the kingdom of heaven." 

It is characteristic of the unrighteous to speak evil 
of and to annoy and persecute those that follow after 
righteousness. 

The right attitude of the soul under persecution 
is : " Bless them which persecute you ; bless and 
curse not." (Romans 12:14.) "Being persecuted, 
we suffer it." (I Corinthians 4: 12.) 

These precepts were contra to those then in vogue, 
for Jesus says: "Ye have heard that it hath been 
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine 
enemy"; but your Father which is in heaven "maketh 
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and 
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Mat- 
thew 5: 43,45-) 



10S .MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

From these precepts it appears that the ethical 
relation was not well understood even by the Jews in 
those days. There are numerous instances to show 
that ethic ideas are progressive — at times also retro- 
gressive. 

Fifty to a hundred years ago the slave trade was 
justified by many. Now, by civilized and christian- 
ized people, it is held to be no better than piracy. 
In England and the United States there has been, 
in the last fifty years, a marked change in favor of 
stricter rules of temperance. Now, this change in 
the views of men does not argue any change in the 
ground-principles of the right. This is always the same, 
and there is in the soul of man always a response to 
this principle and an affirmation of it — but his intel- 
lect and moral perceptions are often clouded, so as 
not to fully appropriate the true content of what is 
right. 

Our Lord's closing injunction in the Sermon on 
the Mount is: " Be ye perfect as your heavenly 
Father is perfect.'* 

37. The Virtues. — General View: Virtue is 
universally praised and honored by men and vice 
is reproved. Even those who are not virtuous them- 
selves give their testimony in favor of virtue. They 
acknowledge their duty ; but are blind to their own 
non-performance of it, or else endeavor to excuse it. 
"They know the better, yet pursue the worse." 

We often condemn in others what we are guilty 
of ourselves. The scripture injunctions are : "Add 
to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge." 



THE VIRTUES. 100 



(II Peter I : 5.) ''Finally, brethren, whatsoever things 
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, what- 
soever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of 
good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be 
any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 

4:8.) 

We see that vice is punished by law; but that 
against virtue there is no law. 

This proves that virtue is recognized as the natural 
and proper state of man, and that vice is regarded as 
an abnormal condition to be discouraged and cor- 
rected. St. Paul discloses this idea in his enumer- 
ation of Christian virtues. " But the fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such 
there is no law." (Galatians 5 : 22, 23.) 

These virtues are in themselves natural laws, 
against which there can be no ground for positive 
law. 

With the ancients, prudence, justice, temperance 
and fortitude were reckoned cardinal virtues. 

What a man ought to do and does do in the face 
of adverse influences, is a virtue ; and as in doing right 
we are beset with temptation not to do right, right 
acts — morally right — are accounted as virtues. 

"We love a virtuous man," says Tully, " though 
he live in the remotest parts of the earth ; though 
we are altogether out of the reach of his virtue, and 
can receive from it no manner of benefit ; nay, one 
who died several years ago raises a secret fondness 
and benevolence for him, in our minds, when we 



lit) MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

read his story ; nay, what is still more, one who has 
been the enemy of our country, provided his wars 
were regulated by justice and humanity. Such is 
the natural beauty and loveliness of virtue." 

" As virtue in general is of an amiable and lovely 
nature, there are some particular kinds of it which 
are more so than others, and these are such as dispose 
us to do good to mankind." 

Temperance and abstinence, faith and devotion, 
are in themselves perhaps as laudable as any other 
virtues ; but those which make a man popular and 
beloved are justice, charity, munificence, and in short 
all the good qualities that render us beneficial to 
each other. 

The two great ornaments of virtue which show 
her in the most advantageous views, and make her 
altogether lovely, are cheerfulness and good nature. 
These generally go together, as a man cannot be 
agreeable to others who is not easy within himself. 

They are both very requisite in a virtuous mind to 
keep out melancholy from the many serious thoughts 
it is engaged in, and to hinder its natural hatred of 
vice from souring into severity and censoriousness. 

Tully further says : " Virtue and decency are so 
nearly related that it is difficult to separate them 
from each other but in our imagination. As the 
beauty of the body always accompanies the health 
of it, so certainly is decency the concomitant to 
virtue. 

" As beauty of body with an agreeable carriage 
pleases the eye, and that pleasure consists in that we 
observe all the parts with a certain elegance are pro- 



THE VIRTUES. 111 



portioned to each other, so does decency of behavior 
which appears in our lives obtain the approba- 
tion of all with whom we converse, from the or- 
der, consistency and moderation of our words and 
actions. 

" This flows from the reverence we bear towards 
every good man. and to the world in general, for to 
be negligent of what anyone thinks of you does not 
only show you arrogant, but abandoned." {The 
Spectator., Nos. 104, 243.) 

Industry: By industry is meant a steady employ- 
ment of the hand or mind in the prosecution of any 
proper or suitable work or design for some good ob- 
ject. 

Thus we speak of an industrious mechanic, far- 
mer, merchant, student. 

Industry is a virtue when directed to the virtuous 
end of providing a comfortable living for oneself, or 
for those dependent on us, the wife, the child, the 
aged father and mother, or of aiding in some be- 
nevolent work, or in the cause of education, and in 
the promotion of right principles of life among men. 

Idleness is the opposite of industry — it is a vice, 
and its results are contra in character. The idle me- 
chanic, instead of being a generous bread-winner for 
his house, wastes his irregular earnings at the ale- 
house, and lets his unhappy wife provide, as best 
she can, the scant meal for herself and children. 
The idle farmer, instead of fine wheat, produces 
weeds. 

"I went by the field of the slothful, and by the 
vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo, 



112 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had 
covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof 
was broken down." (Proverbs 24: 30, 31.) " The slug- 
gard will not plough by reason of the cold : there- 
fore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing." 
(Proverbs 20 : 4.) "An idle soul shall suffer hunger." 
(Proverbs 19: 15.) 

Industry tends to independence: idleness, to de- 
pendence. "The hand of the diligent shall bear 
rule ; but the slothful shall be under tribute." 
(Proverbs 12 : 24.) 

The apostle, in exhorting to the performance of 
duties, enumerated diligence or industry among 
Christian virtues. "Not slothful in business ; fer- 
vent in spirit ; serving the Lord." (Romans 12 : 11.) 

In scripture we have the ant as the type of indus- 
try. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her 
ways and be wise." (Proverbs 6 : 6.) 

Frugality is a virtue akin to industry, for industry 
is in vain unless joined with frugality, namely, a 
moderate use without waste of the means we ac- 
quire by industry. Without frugality we save noth- 
ing against a time of need. 

Poverty does not insure frugality ; often the poor 
are most wasteful and improvident. It is this lack 
of frugality that keeps them poor. This is, perhaps, 
the exception rather than the rule ; for there are 
many virtuous poor, frugal and yet straitened in 
their means. 

Uncultivated individuals and uncivilized people, 
the barbarous and savage races, like the Indians of 
North America, are most noted for lack of frugality, 



THE VIRTUES. 113 



using and spending freely and wastefully what they 
have while it lasts, without regard to the probable 
wants of the morrow. 

Among insects, the ant has been cited ; it cannot, 
however, be said that insects are industrious or fru- 
gal from virtuous motives, but that they act merely 
from an instinctive sense of what is necessary for self- 
preservation. 

But young people should be trained in the virtue 
of accomplishing much by well-directed effort , and 
of putting to good use what they acquire. 

They should learn to hate idleness and a frivolous 
employment of time — not, however, to shun such 
honest sport and recreation as is needful to the 
maintenance of good spirits and health. 

Frugality, it has been said, is the basis of liber- 
ality. The frugal man, the man who takes care of 
the pence, is the man most ready to bestow a 
pound, w T ith good judgment as to where it is most 
needed , while the generous man, who is not frugal, 
is liable to defraud his own household, and at the 
same time misapply his bounty by the selection of 
an unworthy object. 

George Washington disliked waste, and so is it 
with the great benefactors of mankind ; and so do 
most persons feel who know the cost of a dollar 
earned by toil. 

The miser personifies the abuse of frugality. 
" Riches give him no plenty ; increase, no joy ; pros- 
perity, no ease ; he has the curse of covetousness 
— to want the property of his neighbors, while he 
dare not touch his own ; the harpy Avarice drives 



114 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

him from his own meat ; the sum of his wisdom and 
his gains will be, by living poor to die rich. 

His monument should be lettered thus : " Here 
lies one who lived unloved, died unlamented ; denied 
plenty to himself, assistance to his friends, and relief 
to the poor ; starved his family, oppressed his neigh- 
bors, plagued himself to gain what he could not 
enjoy ; at last, death, more merciful to him than he 
to himself, released him from care, and his family 
from want." 

Economy is related to frugality, yet has a wider 
meaning. Frugality is restricted to the use of ma- 
terial. Economy enters into the production of ma- 
terial as well as its use. 

The true province of economy is finely discussed 
by Hannah Moore. Can anyone do better than to 
quote from what this gifted author has written ? 

" Ladies whose natural vanity has been aggravated 
by a false education, may look down on economy as a 
vulgar attainment, unworthy the attention of a 
highly cultivated intellect ; but this is the false 
estimate of a shallow mind. Economy, such as a 
woman of fortune is called on to practice, is not 
merely the petty detail of small daily expenses, the 
shabby curtailments and stinted parsimony of a 
little mind operating on little concerns ; but it is 
the exercise of a sound judgment exerted in the 
comprehensive outline of order, of arrangement, of 
distribution; of regulations by which alone well- 
governed societies, great and small, subsist. She 
who has the best regulated mincT will, other things 
being equal, have the best regulated family. As, in 



THE VIRTUES. 115 



the superintendence of the universe, wisdom is seen 
in its effects; and, as in the visible works of Provi- 
dence, that which goes on with such beautiful regu- 
larity is the result not of chance, but of design ; so 
that management which seems the most easy is 
commonly the consequence of the best concerted 
plan ; and a well concerted plan is seldom the off- 
spring of an ordinary mind. A sound economy is a 
sound understanding brought into action ; it is a 
calculation realized ; it is the doctrine of proportion 
reduced to practice; it is foreseeing consequences, 
and guarding against them ; it is expecting con- 
tingencies, and being prepared for them." 

Prudence : "Be prudent," is often the caution of a 
parent, friend, or other adviser, in reference to some- 
thing we propose to do, or are about to do ; and it 
means that we shall carefully consider first whether 
it is best to do it, and, if so, in what way, by what 
means, the desired end can best be obtained. 

Webster defines prudence, " Wisdom applied to 
practice ; and prudent, " Sagacious in adapting means 
to ends." 

"A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth 
himself ; but the simple pass on and are punished." 
(Proverbs 22 : 3.) Solomon was "endued with pru- 
dence and understanding." (II Chronicles 2 : 12.) 

A great part of what we call good or ill fortune 
comes from right or wrong plans of life ; so that to 
be unfortunate in one's affairs means about the same 
as to be imprudent ; hence good fortune presupposes 
prudence. But this is not all the truth, for as the 
Scottish bard has it: 



116 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

" The best laid schemes o' mice and men 
Gang aft agley." 

And so is it evident that many events in our lives 
result from causes beyond the reach of prudence to 
provide for. These are accounted accidents from 
their unforeseen nature ; and providences, from the 
innate idea and sentiment that all events occur in ac- 
cord with the Divine will. In The Spectator, No. 293, 
is given an instance of the application of this senti- 
ment to a notable event. 

On the destruction of the "invincible Armada," 
the queen Elizabeth, regarding the favoring storm 
as indicating that Providence was on her side, caused 
a medal to be made to represent a fleet beaten by a 
tempest, with this inscription : "Afflavit Deus, et 
dissipantur." God breathed a storm, and they were 
scattered. 

Prudence for Girls [Maria Edgcwort/i] : "In the 
education of girls, we must teach them much more 
caution than is necessary to boys ; their prudence 
must be more the result of reasoning than of experi- 
ment; they must trust to the experience of others ; 
they cannot always have recourse to what ought to 
be ; they must adapt themselves to what is ; they 
cannot rectify the material mistakes in their conduct. 
Timidity, a certain tardiness of decision, and reluct- 
ance to act in public situations, are not considered 
as defects in a woman's character ; her pausing pru- 
dence does not, to a man of discernment, denote 
imbecility, but appears to him the graceful, au- 
spicious characteristic of female virtue. There is 



THE VIRTUES. 117 



always more probability that women should endan- 
ger their own happiness by precipitation than by 
forbearance. Promptitude of choice is seldom ex- 
pected from the female sex; they should avail 
themselves of the leisure that is permitted to them 
for reflection. ' Begin nothing of which you have 
not considered the end/ was the advice for which 
the Eastern sultan paid a purse of gold." 

The native prudence Maria Edgeworth treats of 
does not militate against a certain freedom and de- 
cision in thought and act which the increased ad- 
vantages of education accorded to girls of the 
present age has made possible and has given to 
the sex. These new advantages widen the sphere 
of usefulness and happiness for women, give value 
to their work and conversation — provided they do 
not, by the abuse of them, displace native prudence ; 
for feminine freedom and decision, born of a liberal 
culture in literature and in the science of life, when 
circled by feminine prudence, is like "apples of gold 
in pictures of silver." 

Self-control, or presence of mind, and a well 
poised soul is an important virtue. 

This means that we should control our hopes, 
fears, desires and passions, so as not to be taken by 
surprise, and carried away captive by them under 
any circumstances that may chance to arise. If 
danger confronts us, we gain nothing by giving 
way to fear; we must hold on to our wits to com- 
prehend the situation, and to use such remedies as 
are practicable. 

In case of threatened violence from an enem}^ a 



118 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

robber, or an enraged or vicious animal, collected 
thoughts and feelings are needful to ward off the 
attack by prompt, vigorous and effective resistance, 
if this be the practicable way ; if not, by a wise re- 
treat from the impending danger. 

Self-control, when anger is provoked, is a virtue. 
" Be ye angry and sin not ; let not the sun go down 
on your wrath." Anger is a natural passion be- 
stowed on man for a good purpose. Anger is the 
manifestation of dislike, and it is sometimes neces- 
sary to let a foolish or a wicked person know that 
we dislike his ways. 

The viper is angry when trodden on, and his mani- 
festation of anger is doubly useful. It guards the 
viper from further molestation ; and his angry hiss 
puts the innocent intruder on his guard to get be- 
yond the reach of the poisonous fang. Manifest 
anger, if properly restrained, may be beneficial to 
both actor and object. 

As to the appetites and propensities, virtue is 
compatible only with a strict control over them. 
Self-control cements the foundations of virtue ; 
where this is lacking, vice easily usurps the place of 
virtue and all is lost. 

Purity and Continency : The family is the hearth- 
stone of virtue, and the corner-stone of society, good 
government, prosperity and happiness. 

Impurity is directly antagonistic to this primeval 
and fundamental institution — hence wise legislators 
and legislation oppose and restrict. 

The high praise bestowed upon the virtue of 
the Roman matron indicates the tone not only of 



THE VIRTUES. 119 



Roman sentiment, but the true feeling and senti- 
ment of all men whose moral nature has not been 
blunted by vice; and hardly any vice demoralizes 
the entire man more thoroughly than that of impu- 
rity. It is antagonistic to all law, physical and 
moral, and as a bad habit, for whose inlet into and 
possession of the soul the will of man is entirely re- 
sponsible, it speedily gains the mastery, tyrannizes 
over the soul, and destroys all the good in man's 
nature, except by special and determined effort at 
reformation. Eras of profligacy have prevailed in 
all nationalities, even the most civilized ; among the 
formal-religious and the openly irreligious ; and too 
often this dark and low sink of vice and crime is 
found among the so-called higher classes of society. 
When the leaders in the social fabric, and the rulers 
in the political, are themselves corrupt, then indeed 
the people have good reason to mourn. 

Continency is by natural law, in so far as it char- 
acterizes the animal creation, and is maintained 
within its bounds by physical law, save that in man 
alone in accord with his higher endowment, conti- 
nency must be regarded and habitually established 
by reason, by common sense, and by the categorical- 
imperative of the moral nature ; for without conti- 
nency there can be no health nor happiness in the 
conjugal relation; nor in the social; nor in life. 

Sincerity, Simplicity : Sincerity is honesty of in- 
tent and is compatible with all knowledge. 

Simplicity is an artlessness and sincerity that is 
compatible with a lack of wisdom ; it characterizes 
the child. 



120 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Scripture furnishes fine illustrations of these traits: 
"Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of 
him, Behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no 
guile!" (John 1:47.) A Bible character quite the 
opposite we have in the patriarch Jacob, noted in 
his youth for his wiles ; while on the other hand, 
his twin brother — the rude, thoughtless, yet gen- 
erous, kind-hearted Esau, though defrauded of his 
birthright, maintains throughout an honest simplic- 
ity and sincerity in his relations with all, even with 
Jacob. 

Simplicity and sincerity are qualities that natu- 
rally belong to man — how naturally is seen in the 
speech and acts of little children, which are surely 
marked by these pleasing and valuable traits of the 
soul, till corrupted by evil communications. As 
natural and desirable qualities, all men admire and 
respect them wherever exhibited; like all the vir- 
tues, they have a universal character, in moral rela- 
tion. 

In literature, simplicity of style is regarded as 
most attractive, and holds attention where os- 
tentatious ornament would tire ; for simplicity 
is compatible with a directness and energy of dic- 
tion that distinguishes elevated thought, and read- 
ily passes over into the sublime — like a great calm 
resting upon the ground-swell of the boundless 
ocean. 

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, 
they spin not ; and yet I say unto you, that Solo- 
mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
these. If then God so clothe the grass, which to- 



THE VIRTUES. 121 



day is in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the 
oven, how much more will he clothe you. 

Here we have great simplicity and beauty, and deep 
moral and religious sentiment underlying it. 

Charity is love in a wide sense ; is a primary prin- 
ciple that pervades all the amenities of life ; is the 
common flux that promotes the fusion and easy flow 
of the graces of the soul. 

When we say this man is charitable, we generally 
mean that he relieves the needy, or is liberal, so far 
as his means admit, in the endowment and support 
of charitable institutions ; but if we add, is charitable 
in his judgments, we mean that he puts a liberal 
construction on the acts of other people, and con- 
demns not hastily. 

Nowhere better than in the Scriptures do we find 
exhibited the meaning, use and praise of charity. In 
I Corinthians, chap. 13, occur in substance these 
sentiments, thus : 

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of 
angels, and have not charity, I am become as 
sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy and 
all knowledge, and have not charity, I am noth- 
ing. 

Charity suffereth long and is kind ; envieth not ; 
vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up ; seeketh not 
her own ; is not easily provoked ; thinketh no evil ; 
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all 
things, endureth all things, and never fails. 

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these 
three; but the greatest of these is charity. 



122 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

38. The Sentiments. — Patriotism. 

" Breathes there the man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said, 

This is my own, my native land ! 
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, 
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd 

From wandering on a foreign strand? 
If such there breathe, go, mark him well; 
For him no minstrel raptures swell; 
High tho' his titles, proud his name, 
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, — 
Despite those titles, power and pelf, 
The wretch, concentered all in self, 
Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 
And, doubly dying, shall go down 
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, 
Unwept, Unhonored, and unsung." 

— Walter Scott. 

Noted instances of patriotism can be seen in the 
history of the nations of almost every age of the 
world. It is, however, better for us to recall those of 
more recent^ times, and specially those of our 
own land ; for nowhere do we find a more intelligent 
and ardent devotion to the then present and to the 
future weal of one's native land and to the principle 
of liberty than in the acts individual and collective 
of the American colonists prior to and during the 
struggle for independence. Daniel Webster's elo- 
quent words are : '" Nowhere can be found higher 
proofs of a spirit that was ready to hazard all, to 
pledge all, to sacrifice all, in the cause of the country. 
Instances were not unfrequent in which small free- 
holders parted with their last hoof, and the last 
measure of corn from their granaries, to supply 



THE SENTIMENTS. 123 

provision for the troops and hire service for the 
ranks. 

"The voice of Otis and of Adams in Faneuil Hall 
found its full and true echo in the little councils of 
the interior towns ; and if within the Continental 
Congress patriotism shows more conspicuously, it 
did not there exist more truly, nor burn more fer- 
vently; it did not render the day more anxious or 
the night more sleepless ; it sent up no more ardent 
prayer to God for succor, and it put forth in no 
greater degree the fullness of its effect, and the en- 
ergy of its whole soul and spirit in the common 
cause, than it did in the small assemblies of the 
towns." 

In the above extract is brought out the important 
fact that the common people were ready with their 
offerings on the altar of liberty no less than were 
their more distinguished compatriots and leaders ; the 
tiller of the soil, no less than the man of wise coun- 
sel, brave words and heroic deeds, like James Otis, 
Samuel and John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Pat- 
rick Henry, Lee, Thomas Jefferson and George 
Washington. 

And no less overflowing with pure love of country 
was the soul of that honest Quaker, Robert Morris, 
who in time of great need came to his country's aid 
with "the sinews of war," in his wealth of gold and 
of financial ability. The signers of the Declaration 
of Independence pledged their lives, their fortunes 
and their sacred honor. 

Patriotism as a sentiment is inspired by the moral 
principle of duty to the present and future genera- 



124 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

tions — hence its ethic character. The patriotic ele- 
ment or character has been denied to brave Leonidas 
and his band of three hundred Spartans who per- 
ished at Thermopylae, on the ground that they 
fell in obedience to a sentiment of duty to their 
laws — to Spartan law — rather than in obedience to 
a sentiment of patriotism ; but this objection is 
nothing — is short-sighted criticism — for the law was 
made to voice the sentiment of patriotism. Obedi- 
ence to the laws was only the immediate ground- 
principle or corner-stone, of which obedience to the 
patriotic sentiment was the lower bed-rock. 

The Abuse of the Sentiment of Patriotism : "As 
men, in proportion to their moral advancement, 
learn to enlarge the circle of their regards ; as an ex- 
clusive affection for our relatives, our clan, or our 
country, is a sure mark of an unimproved mind ; so 
is that narrow and unchristian feeling to be con- 
demned which regards with jealousy the progress of 
foreign nations, and cares for no portion of the 
human race but that to which itself belongs. 

The detestable encouragement so long given to 
national enmities — the low gratification felt by every 
people in extolling themselves above their neigh- 
bors — should not be forgotten among the causes 
which have mainly obstructed the improvement of 
mankind. 

Exclusive patriotism should be cast off, together 
with the exclusive ascendancy of birth, as belong- 
ing to the follies and selfishness of our uncultivated 
nature." — Dr. Arnold. 

Friendship is the mutual affection of two souls 



THE SENTIMENTS. 125 

that honor, admire, have confidence in and under- 
stand each other, so that the one enters into the 
joys and the sorrows of the other. 

True friendship is compatible only with virtue — the 
love of good qualities. Not every man can be said to 
have a friend in the proper, the highest and best 
sense of friendship, and men have friends — held 
to be such — in various degrees of friendly relations ; 
and so friendship affects not merely the individuals, 
but society at large. 

Among the noted instances of friendship is com- 
monly cited that between Damon and Pythias, Da- 
vid and Jonathan. 

In reference to the friendship that existed be- 
tween Christ and his disciples, the Lord Jesus gives 
us the best characteristic and definition of friendship, 
when he says : " Henceforth I call you not ser- 
vants ; for the servant knoweth not what his lord 
doeth ; but I have called you friends, for all things 
that I have heard of my Father I have made known 
unto you." (John 15: 15.) 

* * * * » anc j m anj sounds were sweet, 
Most ravishing and pleasant to the ear; 
But sweeter none than voice of faithful friend, 
Sweet always, sweetest heard in loudest storm. 
Some I remember and will ne'er forget; 
My early friends, friends of my evil day; 
Friends in my mirth, friends in my misery too; 
Friends given by God in mercy and in love; 
My counsellors, my comfortors, and guides." 

—Pollok. 

The Ethics of Friendship : Duty in friendship is 
well defined in this given characteristic : "A friend 



126 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

sticketh closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18: 24.) 
Be true to your friend in good and in evil report, and 
give all needed counsel, aid and comfort compatible 
with the maintenance of a good conscience. 

If your friend is fortunate, rejoice with him, with- 
out the slightest feeling of envy; if unfortunate, or 
in the wrong, help him in his difficulty to the ex- 
tent of your ability — save only a due regard to 
truth and the right — just as is required of an honest 
lawyer in behalf of his client. 

With those in authority, a false friendship some- 
times obtains toward favorites and family relatives. 
Thus, Queen Elizabeth had her favorites, Essex and 
Leicester, to the detriment of the public weal. 

Washington, in making appointments to offices 
of public trust, found it necessary — excluding the 
consideration of family ties — to regard only fitness 
of character and qualifications for the office, and 
claims from former merit in the public service. 

Honor is defined by Webster thus : "A nice sense 
of what is right, just and true, with a course of life 
correspondent thereto." 

" Say, what is honor? 'Tis the finest sense 
Of justice which the human mind can frame 
Intent each lurking frailty to disclaim', 
And guard the way of life from all offense 
Suffered or done." — Wordsworth. 

" Honor and fame from no condition rise; 
Act well vour part; there all the honor lies." 

—Pope. 

The sentiment of Pope in this couplet, in one 
view, speaks truly ; in another it is incorrect. Admit 



DUTY IN MORAL RELA TION. 127 

that honor is not necessarily affected by condition, 
yet practically it is. We should by nature have 
thoughts and feelings just and honorable ; but to 
insure the cultivation, maintenance and habitual 
presence and use of such feelings, the environment 
must be favorable; in other words, the element of 
condition enters. 

In the English Parliament the lords act pro bono 
publico, on the honor of gentlemen ; with a king, 
the focal point of honor is in truth and justice ; with 
a soldier, it is in obedience and courage ; with the 
statesman, it is in moral courage — fidelity to one's 
convictions, while the man of business sees it in 
honesty and in the prompt discharge of obligations. 

Sir Walter Scott, by the reverses of his partners 
in publishing houses, became responsible for over 
100,000 pounds sterling. Of this immense debt he 
paid 40,000 pounds in two years by means of his 
literary labors, and all in six years ; but the toil and 
strain cost him his life. This act has wreathed the 
brow of Sir Walter Scott with greener laurels than 
all his literary honors. 



division ii. duty; duties. 

39. Duty the Element in All Moral Re- 
lation. — Duty Defined: Webster defines it thus: 
" That which a person is bound, by any natural, 
moral or legal obligation to do, or to refrain from 
doing ; the relation or obliging force of that which 
is morally right." 



128 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Duty Illustrated : The Priest and the Levite, 
who passed by on the other side, were morally 
bound to succor the wounded man who on the 
road to Jericho had fallen among thieves or robbers; 
but they did not. They possessed neither the native 
good feelings of humanity, nor a true idea of re- 
ligion, or of duty to God, though professedly they 
were religious. If was left to the good Samaritan — 
good, though ordinarily not on speaking terms with 
the wounded stranger he had fallen in with by the 
wayside — to illustrate the true idea of duty in the 
manifestation of " love for one's neighbor." 

In behalf of a man by national antipathy and edu- 
cation inimical to himself, he did all acts of kind- 
ness necessary to relieve his distress; bound up his 
wounds, conveyed him to a place of safety ; and 
paid the charges for the care of him until his 
recovery. 

In family, social and neighborly relations, sympa- 
thy, love, good will, and kind acts are duties, as well 
as the works necessary for life and health. That 
duty is the essential element in these relations is evi- 
dent enough ; and also in other relations — in civil 
and political affairs, a sense of duty must control all 
the acts of citizens and officials, else the public weal 
suffers, at the behest of fancied self-interest, and of 
party ends. 

40. Duties to God. — Obedience: "The fear 
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; a good 
understanding have all they that do his command- 
ments." (Psalm in : 10.) 



DUTIES TO GOD. 129 

Prayer : Prayer proceeds from a native desire of 
the sonl for Supreme aid. In times of spiritual and 
temporal poverty, we call upon God for his favor and 
blessing. It is the natural outflow of the needy 
soul, under a great realization of its wants, seeking 
help from the highest source ; and this naturally be- 
comes habitual, as the experiences of the Father's 
mercies and confidence in him are multiplied and 
enlarged. Hence the duty of prayer. 

The Lord Jesus has given us an appropriate form : 
"Our Father which art in heaven" (Matthew 6 : 
9-13). He has aiso emphasized the duty of prayer 
by his own example — by his frequent, natural and 
earnest use of this means of communion and 
communication with the Father. " He went up into 
a mountain apart to pray." (Matthew 14: 23.) He 
prayed for his disciples." (John 17.) 

Noted Instances of Prayer: Other noted in- 
stances are: the prayer of Moses for his people ; the 
prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. 
Daniel's persistence in his customary prayers 
three times a day, in face of the decree of King 
Darius, is a most noted instance of adherence to 
duty, and of great and good results arising there- 
from. (Daniel 6.) 

In all ages, the most patriotic, wise, brave and 
useful men have been men of prayer, and so it al- 
ways will be. 

On the contrary, there are those who inquire : 
"What is the Almighty that we should serve him, 
and what profit should we have if we pray unto him? 
(Job 21: 15.) 



130 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

These are they who are lacking in natural sensi- 
bilities, and in a good understanding. 

Praise: "Let my mouth be filled with thy 
praise, to give unto them beauty for ashes: the oil 
of joy for mourning: the garment of praise for the 
spirit of heaviness." (Isaiah 61 : 3.) 

In scripture the duty of praise is everywhere in- 
sisted on ; he who has no feeling for praise is de- 
ficient in the finer sensibilities of our nature. 

If a man utter some noble or generous sentiment 
in accord with human nature, or do some worthy 
deed, the people praise him : it is natural that they 
should. Not less so is it, or should it be, when we 
realize the goodness of the Father. 

True worship has been briefly considered under 
the second commandment. (Section 34.) 

When men consider the earth, the heavens, all 
things therein — the related parts, the harmony — 
they are convinced that one intelligence made all : 
that God is One. 

The duty of love for God in whom there is con- 
stitutionally the true, the right, the good — loving 
these qualities and hating the contra ones! Without 
this spiritual view of God it were vain to say that 
we love God, for if we love him we must love him 
in his true character, not only as great and good, 
but as the Lord of all who governs the universe in 
righteousness. 

Our obedience must antedate as well as evidence 
our love. In obedience fear gives place to love — 
love is the ultimate and the crowning duty — or rather 



DUTIES TO GOD. 131 

it is that state of the soul to which all other du- 
ties done lead us. 

These soul-elements — obedience, fear, reverence, 
true worship, love — are assisted, purified and inten- 
sified by a survey of nature — the heavens, the earth 
— the sublimest of all phenomena presented to our 
sense-faculties. 

Duties to God, then, as religious and moral, are 
first in time and in value, in the formation of char- 
acter. And these duties are seen to multiply and 
to grow broad and deep in proportion as the facul- 
ties of the soul are enlarged and cultivated by the 
study and the appreciation of the natural and the 
spiritual in God's universe. 

To quote a fine passage : 

" The reverent mind sees God in all his works. 
The eternal hills are his strength ; the clouds are 
his chariot ; the lightnings are his arrows ; the thun- 
der is his voice. In the impassioned language of 
sacred poetry, even inanimate nature fears and 
adores her God. 

"He touches the hills and they smoke, 
At his going forth, the pillars of heaven 

tremble and are astonished. 
The deep uttereth his voice 

and lifteth up his hands on high." 

Faith is implicit confidence and trust in God — 
that we should do his will. Scripture examples of 
faith we have in Abraham, whose faith " was counted 
unto him for righteousness:" and in the centurion 
at Capernaum, of whom Jesus said: " I have not 



132 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

found so great faith, no, not in Israel ;" also in He- 
brews xi are numerous examples, and in many other 
noted instances, the nature of faith and its excel- 
lences are exhibited. This faith is enkindled by 
hope, is enlightened and enlarged by the reason and 
intensified by love. 

Faith in God arises primarily from a constitutional 
provision whereby we have confidence in him who 
has not deceived us. We cannot question the wis- 
dom nor the sincerity of God, and so we intuitively 
see that he is worthy of faith, and if our will is 
good we gladly obey him. 

To exercise faith in God and to obey him are in- 
separable acts. If we obey not, we have not faith ; 
if we have not faith, we do not obey. 

" Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11 : i.) 
That is, we realize that the visions of hope have 
foundations ; seen with the eye of faith they become 
real, and we hope for a happy issue out of all the 
trials of earth into a joyful state immortal. 

Only a living faith 1 arising from the love of di- 
vine things can assure us that this is not a vain 
hope. 

Hope is the expectation with varied degrees of 
confidence of things desired. If these are things 
heavenly, hope leads to a pure life. "And every 
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, 
even as he is pure." (i John 3 : 3.) 

The Father " hath begotten us again unto a lively 
hope." (1 Peter 1 : 3, 4.) The ground of the hope 
here referred to is "the resurrection of Jesus Christ;" 



DUTIES TO GOD. 133 

and the object of the hope is, "an inheritance incor- 
ruptible." 

In Romans v, the object of hope is "peace with 
God " and the glory therewith, and the ground of 
this hope is " justification by faith through our 
Lord:" also this hope arises from our experience 
through patience and tribulations. 

This hope having origin in the exercises of the 
soul herein named, including the love of God shed 
abroad in our hearts, is not a shamefaced hope, but 
imparts courage and shields us like the armor of an 
armed man : thus (i Thessalonians 5:8) " for an 
helmet, the hope of salvation," and it gives safety as 
in tHis other metaphor (Hebrews 6:19), "Which 
hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure 
and steadfast." But " the hypocrite's hope shall 
perish ; " thus it is that both faith and hope are in- 
nate states, conditions and faculties of the soul on 
which, aided by our understanding and the reason, 
we largely depend in our cognition of the divine 
attributes. 

In its application to men and to worldly affairs, 
faith has its source more in the reason, less in feel- 
ing. 

"Faith is the inner ear of the Spirit which is 
open to, catches up and retains the imparted word 
of a higher revelation. Hope, however, is the eye, 
whose clear vision discerns even in the remote dis- 
tance the objects of its profound and ardent long- 
ing." (Schlegel.) 

Hope presupposes the existence of faith and 
brings us to a thoroughly vivid idea of it — no arbi- 



134 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

trary and artificial idea, but one real and vital. 
While faith and hope are primarily of the soul, 
scripture everywhere recognizes the value of the 
reason as an element in it. 

" Ready always to give a reason of the hope that 
is in you." (i Peter 3:15.) For the matter of the 
revelation, the object of it, and the philosophy in it, 
all will accord with man's nature and with sound 
reason. But as man's reason is often at fault logi- 
cally, and also as in the pursuit of science, we meet 
with questions the understanding cannot fathom, so 
it is the part of sound reasoning to expect in true 
religion to meet with doctrines beyond present com- 
prehension. 

The visions, promises and judgments of Isaiah 
and the other great prophets abound in reasoning; 
thus in Isaiah 1 : 18 : " Come now and let us reason 
together, saith the Lord." "Hast thou not known : 
hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the 
Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth 
not, neither is weary ? Even the youths shall faint 
and be weary, but they that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength." (Isaiah 40: 28-31.) 

The grand thoughts of King David show how 
largely the intellect contributes to deep spiritu- 
ality. 

"When I survey thy heavens, thy handiwork, 
The moon, the stars, thou didst of old ordain, 
Man, what is he, that thou for him shouldst care ? 
The Son of man, that thou shouldst visit him! " 

The ethic-character of faith and hope lies in 
the relation they have to a high plane in morals, 



INDIVIDUAL DUTIES. 135 

and as being necessary elements in religion, and also 
in the ordinary transactions and duties of life. Our 
affections, motives, aspirations and acts are modified 
— are ennobled or are debased by the quality of our 
faith and hope. 

Duties to man necessarily accompany and run 
parallel ; but are second in time and in eminence. 

It is often said that duty done to man is duty to 
God. True — and it is also true that the man of na- 
tive kindly disposition — even though not well in- 
formed as to his relation and duty to God — will yet 
love his neighbor ; but if his native disposition be 
selfish, nothing short of a conviction of duty to 
God will correct it, and yield as fruit, " duty to 
man." 

Most duties to men are seen from reflection on 
reciprocal relations, under the impulse of a good will. 
Time is required for their development and clear 
cognition. " Fear God and keep his commandments, 
for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 
12:13.) 

41. Individual Duties. — Self-preservation is a 
natural instinct in animals, man included ; but 
man's duty is to make use of his intelligence. 

Healtli : Without health a man accomplishes 
little, and he will have little comfort of life. Its 
preservation, then, is a prime duty. The old saying, 

" Early to bed and early to rise," 

is certainly true as to a life of physical toil, in which 
little can be done without an early start. The lost 



136 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

hours of the morning cannot be overtaken, and na- 
ture has so ordered it that the improvement of these 
early hours is most conducive to health. 

As to whether the like regularity of hours for 
work and sleep can be maintained in literary and in 
professional toil is another question. Certainly the 
environments of professional life do not admit of so 
even a uniformity in the distribution of time. 

Self-examination requires great moral courage. 
We dislike to enter upon a work likely to involve 
self-condemnation ; we prefer to think well of our- 
selves. We know that our conduct ought to be 
such as we can approve, but this can be attained to 
only by self-examination through the conscience. 
" Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a con- 
science void of offence towards God and towards 
men." (Acts 24: 16.) 

It is human to err ; it is manly to acknowledge 
our errors to ourselves and to God ; also to men 
when the nature of the case requires it. " Have 
courage to review your own conduct ; to condemn 
it where you detect faults ; to amend it to the best of 
your ability ; to make good resolutions for future 
guidance, and to keep them." 

The Duty of Labor : There is dignity in labor, 
when performed with a cheerful mind ; and there is 
duty when it is done for our own support, or for 
that of those dependent on us. 

Honest labor, too, promotes health as well as 
thrift, and is irksome only to those who think more 
of evanescent pleasures than of solid duty. 

Labor was ennobled when the Lord appointed it 



INDIVIDUAL DUTIES. 137 

for the first man Adam, while he was yet innocent 
and obedient. "And the Lord God took the man, 
and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress 
it, and to keep it." (Genesis 2 : 15.) 

The farm and the garden is the field of toil for a 
large part of mankind — and no more healthful em- 
ployment can be found. Though the crop be sub- 
ject to vicissitudes, yet this promise holds good : 
"While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, 
and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day 
and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8 : 22.) 

Labor gives necessary exercise to the several or- 
gans of the body, promoting secretions, and the 
casting off the refuse of material that has been used 
in the maintenance and growth of the physical 
organism. 

What gives additional value and zest to labor is 
that law of nature that nothing we need can be 
produced without it. True, some fruits good for 
food grow spontaneously, but these are only a small 
fraction in man's requirements. 

The manufacture of suitable clothing and of very 
many useful articles largely extends the field of 
labor. Some of these kinds of work are not so pro- 
motive of health, and though not to be shunned, 
they must be supplemented by healthful exercise. 
As to mental effort, Juvenal points out that for 
success, " There should be a sound mind in a sound 
body." This maxim should apply also to the moral, 
for without a sound body, moral courage and power 
is crippled. 

" I cannot too much impress upon your mind that 



138 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

labor is the condition which God has imposed on 
us in every station of life — there is nothing worth 
having that can be had without it, from the bread 
which the peasant wins with the sweat of his brow, 
to the sports by which the rich man must get rid of 
his ennui. The only difference between them is, 
that the poor man labors to get a dinner to his appe- 
tite ; the rich man, to get an appetite to his dinner. 
As for knowledge, it can no more be planted in the 
human mind without labor than a field of wheat 
can be produced without the previous use of the 
plough. There is indeed this great difference, that 
chance or circumstances may so cause it that an- 
other shall reap what the farmer sows ; but no man 
can be deprived, whether by accident or misfortune, 
of the fruits of his own studies; and the liberal and 
extended acquisitions of knowledge which he makes 
are all for his own use. Labor, my dear boy, there- 
fore, and improve the time. In youth our steps are 
light, and our minds are ductile, and knowledge is 
easily laid up. But if we neglect our spring, our 
summer will be useless and contemptible, our har- 
vest will be chaff, and the winter of our old age 
unrespected and desolate." — Walter Scott to his 
son. 

Work: " There is a perennial nobleness, and 
even sacredness, in work. Were he never so be- 
nighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always 
hope in a man that actually and earnestly works ; in 
idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Blessed is 
he who has found his work ; let him ask no other 
blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose ; he has 



INDIVIDUAL DUTIES. 139 

found it, and will follow it ! How, as a free flowing 
channel, dug and torn by noble force through the 
sour mud-swamp of one's existence, like an ever- 
deepening river there, it runs and flows, draining off 
the sour festering water gradually from the root of 
the remotest grass blade, making, instead of pesti- 
lential swamp, a green fruitful meadow with its 
clear flowing stream." — Carlyle. 

The Ethics of the Vocation ; To have a vocation 
of some sort is held to be necessary. Even princes 
are taught a trade by which they can earn a liveli- 
hood, if need be. 

One's vocation is in accord with moral law when 
that which is produced by the practice of it is for 
the good of man ; and it is contra to moral law 
when harmful to man's physical or moral constitu- 
tion. The chief use of tobacco is for chewing and 
smoking ; and of whiskey is for drink. These uses 
in general are very detrimental. These habits are 
not only injurious to man, but they are expensive. 
The manufacture and sale, then, of these articles for 
the purposes named is labor worse than useless ; and 
to engage in it as a vocation is to follow a calling 
that tends to degradation of character — to poverty 
and crime. It would be a vocation destitute of 
ethic character. 

So whatever we do, the morality of it must be 
measured by its tendency to promote good or evil ; 
and the moral character of the individual doer — 
whether capitalist or laborer — is measured by the 
extent of knowledge he has, or ought to have, of the 
effect he is producing as good or bad. 



140 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

It becomes, then, the duty of each and all, well to 
consider the tendency, the moral tendency, of his 
vocation. 

The Ethics of Habit : Were Ave perfect in mo- 
rality, we should not need to look to habit as an 
auxiliary to virtue ; but since the most sure-footed 
are liable to stumble, we need to cultivate a sure 
habit of erect carriage and firmness in our walk ; 
namely, we need to be habitually on our guard 
against the seductive influences of vice, and thus 
we shall with ease resist temptation, because we 
have accustomed ourselves to do it. It has become 
a habit with us — a second nature — for us to say no, 
no, no to the overtures of the tempter. 

There is no moral virtue in the habit itself; the 
moral virtue is in the man who has acquired the 
habit. The ethic-character, then, in our habits is in 
the formation and application of good habits as aids 
to virtue. If we neglect this watchfulness over our 
walk and conversation, we shall fall into and become 
accustomed to bad habits. Pope forcibly expresses 
it thus: 

" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; 
Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 

— Essay on Man. 

" Crimes lead to crimes, and link so straight, 
What first was accident, at last is, fate, 
The unhappy servant sinks into a slave, 
And virtue's last sad strugglings cannot save." 

— Mallet. 



INDIVIDUAL DUTIES. 141 

" Watcli ye, and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." (Mark 
14:38.) 

Temperance: " How blest the sparing meal and 
temperate bowl ! " The advantage of temperance 
as a means of health is that everyone, the poor as 
well as the rich, can practice it at all times and in all 
places. It does not oblige us to spend time and 
money at Saratoga, the Hot Springs, Newport, and 
other resorts of health and pleasure seekers. 

If labor gives necessary exercise to the bodily 
organs, and tends to cast out the refuse of material 
used in their growth, temperance tends to a mini- 
mum in the accumulation of what nature rejects, 
and so does not overtax her powers. 

Exercise promotes circulation, but temperance 
gives free course to it, and thus there is force and 
vigor in it. 

Every kind of animal save man is limited by its 
own nature in its range of food, and so is not liable 
to suffer from a surfeit ; but man's constitution is 
adapted to very many kinds of food — to fish, flesh 
and the fruits of the earth ; hence he has need to 
use discretion — to restrain his appetite, and to exer- 
cise the virtue of temperance in the use of food as 
to quality and quantity. 

Temperance in eating and drinking and in every- 
thing promotes longevity. The intemperate are 
sure to shorten their days ; temperance also pro- 
motes thrift, and adds value to every material kind 
of prosperity. But these are not the only or the 
chief advantages of temperance. 

It affects the moral and religious interests of man ; 



142 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

is a sine qua non in the attainment of a character ac- 
ceptable to the Lord of all. Paul preached temper- 
ance as one of the cardinal doctrines. "And as he 
reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judg- 
ment to come, Felix trembled. (Acts 24:25.) 

The Temper: The ethic-character as regards the 
temper is in its government from a sense of duty ; 
while a bad temper is a source of unhappiness to the 
person who has it, it is also a source of great annoy- 
ance to all who come in contact with its unfortunate 
and culpable possessor. 

Duty, then, to those related to us — husband or 
wife, father, mother, child, friend, neighbor — all, re- 
quires that if we have the besetting sin of a fault- 
finding, hasty, peevish or ill-governed temper, we 
should at once set about to rectify and govern it. 

Religion : Man is by nature religious, and is at 
times sensible that he is subject to and should be in 
accord with some supreme power known or un- 
known. 

Seeing that he is the possessor of a religious na- 
ture, there arises then the question of duty: What 
shall be done with this possession ? As the owner of 
houses, he feels bound to keep them in repair, and to 
collect the rents — of lands ; to cultivate them as best 
he can, to secure abundant harvests; and, in gen- 
eral, as a business man, to make wise arrangements 
— to foot up figures correctly, and balance his 
books. So also he readily sees the need and use of 
intellectual and moral cultivation for the attainment 
of a happy life. 

But if by nature religious, ought he not to apply 



IX DIVIDUAL DUTIES. 143 



his trained rational and moral nature to the discovery 
of true religion, so that the entire man — the religious 
nature as well as the physical, intellectual and mor- 
al — shall be duly cultivated and developed ? 

There can be no question as to this obligation and 
duty when stated as an abstract proposition. The 
questioning arises when the method of discovery is 
considered. But the method, whether short or long, 
involves necessary and universal principles. 

Time — the Ethics of Its Use : There are two views 
of the use of time, each having its own ethic-char- 
acter. One relates to diligence in its use, the other 
to the quality of our employments. " Seize upon 
the present moment ; trust little to the morrow," 
is the injunction of Horace, while the " Course of 
Time" reads : 

"Be wise today, 'tis madness to defer: 
Next day the fatal precedent will plead; 
Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of life. 
Procrastination is the thief of time." 

"We all of us complain of the shortness of time," 
saith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know 
what to do with. " Our lives," says he, " are spent 
either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to 
the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to 
do. We are always complaining our days are few, 
and acting as though there would be no end of them. 
Though we seemed grieved at the shortness of life 
in general, we are wishing every period of it at an 
end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a 
man of business, then to make up an estate, then to 



U t MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

arrive at honors, then to retire. Thus, although the 
whole life is allowed by everyone to be short, the 
several divisions of it appear long and tedious. 

The Remedy : " The social virtues may give em- 
ployment to the most industrious temper, and find 
a man in business more than the most active station 
in life. 

To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort 
the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost 
every day of our lives. The remedy has reference 
to quality. 

The Ethics of Observation : Our duty is to ob- 
serve those passing events as well as to study those 
great events that will serve to enlarge our experience 
in regard to what will be useful to ourselves and 
others. 

This forbids wasting time upon the observation of 
things unimportant or frivolous ; not that all in 
every station in life are bound to give particular at- 
tention to the same things. The range of observa- 
tion must be measured in part by the work we have 
marked out for ourselves, our calling, our employ- 
ment in life. 

To the prince proud of his success as a charioteer, 
and looking for praise : "Expect no praise from me," 
his sire replied ; "the skill that guides the chariot- 
wheel back in its own self-same track — that skill, if 
well applied, would rule a State." 

The events of the times and the signs of the 
times should be noticed, that we may be prepared 
to act intelligently when the time for action oc- 
curs. 



INDIVIDUAL DUTIES. 145 

The Ethics of Taste and Culture: While the 
study of the fine arts — music, painting, sculpture 
and poetry — has a humanizing effect and is an im- 
portant element in man's moral and religious educa- 
tion, one feature of its ethic-character is in the fact 
that a relish for the study of the fine arts and po- 
lite literature is a source of innocent amusement, 
unbends the mind wearied in the ordinary pursuits 
of life and professional toil, and counteracts all ten- 
dency to coarse and vulgar pleasures. 

The many advantages to be derived from cultiva- 
tion of taste are admirably exhibited by Dr. Hugh 
Blair in his Lectures on Rhetoric: 

Decision of Character : This means a readiness 
in determining what we will do. Decision and in- 
decision depend upon the energy of the will, and that 
largely upon the influences brought to bear upon it. 

Napoleon I was of quick perception and judgment. 
This, in conjunction with a willing mind to act in 
accord therewith, produced instant and habitual de- 
cision, decision of character. This he manifested at 
the beginning of his career, thus: "October 4, 1795, 
he received the command of the garrison of Paris, 
and the next day he cleared the streets with grape- 
shot ; pursued the rioters into their hiding places ; 
disbanded the national guard ; disarmed the popu- 
lace, and ended the French Revolution." 

The same decision marked his victorious career. 
His power of combination won the battle before it 
was fought. 

George Washington was not so quick in judg- 
ment ; but his judgments were in a much higher de- 
10 



146 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

gree modified and fortified by moral considerations ; 
hence the end of his career was in accord with that 
of a true man ; and will forever shine with a halo 
of light, while Napoleon's star went down in dark- 
ness at midday. 

A high moral element must be conjoined to quick 
intellectual faculties to secure a decision of charac- 
ter fruitful in good works. Great men have not a 
monopoly of these qualities ; they often adorn men 
and women in the humbler walks of life, and it is the 
duty of everyone to attain, so far as is practicable, to 
this valuable kind of decision by cultivating his 
judgment-faculties and moral perceptions. Decision 
of character distinguishes any young man who is 
able to deny all allurements to intemperance or to 
any other vice. 

Discipline : What we do should be well done. 
This is a primal maxim in mental and also in mili- 
tary discipline. Napoleon I was exacting in military 
drill and reviews. Not anything unsoldierlike es- 
caped his eye, even to a missing button on a man's 
coat. 

In every department of duty a habit of slovenly 
work is to be deprecated. It will follow us through 
life, and in a measure defeat the ends of it. 

To do good work we need do one thing at a time, 
so as to have the mind on it till it is done ; other- 
wise time is lost in passing from one thing to an- 
other, and your work will go back on you ; for you 
cannot at once again enter upon it, under the favor- 
ing circumstances you left it in. 

There are, of course, exceptions to this general 



PARENTAL DUTIES. 147 

rule ; yet there needs to be a plan of work and duty 
for efficiency in execution. "Make hay while the 
sun shines " is an old and wise maxim. We must 
be on the lookout for the right opportunity to ac- 
complish a desired result. 

Hence attention to passing events is necessary to 
success. 

" There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." 

We may be sure that in so far as we fail to dis- 
cipline ourselves by our wits, we shall be disciplined 
by misfortune, suffering and punishment. 

42. Parental Duties. — Parental authority is 
founded in the loving relation of the father and 
mother to the child, as the authors of its being — 
hence cannot in all respects be defined by any cer- 
tain rule or law. Affection under the guide of care 
and wisdom makes the rule. 

The old Roman law gave to the father the power 
of life and death over his child ; but there is no law 
in nature for this unwarranted exercise of power. 
The function of civil law is rather to limit the abuse 
of parental authority and government ; for the par- 
ent himself, if ill-bred and not under self-restraint, 
may exceed his right. It is evident he has no right 
to require his child to do anything morally wrong, 
nor to constrain its conscience, though the con- 
science may be instructed. 

In general, the parent should exercise a firm rule ; 
not necessarily a harsh one. A kind manner 



148 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

makes home for the child pleasant ; and this is a 
great restraint against the allurements of bad com- 
panions on the street. But when loving words and 
deeds fail, severity must be used — even the rod 
of correction. 

Children, too, have rights as well as parents — the 
right to credit for truth till forfeited by habitual 
falsehood. By doubting words and looks, the truth- 
ful child may be taught deception. Patience is a 
needful duty hard to exercise about the little trials 
of the tired and cross child, when the parent also is 
weary from the real duties of the day ; but patience 
then may become a virtue. 

Scripture best sums up the duties of parent and 
child: " Children, obey your parents in the Lord, 
for this is right. And ye fathers, provoke not your 
children to wrath ; but bring them up in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord." (Ephesians 6: i.) 

A very important parental duty is in guarding the 
youth against the corrupting influences of bad com- 
panions, immoral literature and pictures. The evil 
ways of bad boys are numerous, and for many a youth 
the descent into them is easy. There are honora- 
ble exceptions ; boys and young men to whom vice 
is so repulsive that they cannot be induced to fol- 
low in her train. But this scripture is true : " Evil 
communications corrupt good manners." And it is 
also true that when evil thoughts and speech and 
bad habits have once obtained a foothold, it is not 
easy to obtain the mastery over them. 

A ready perception of right and wrong, and a 
prompt determination to the right, will not be found 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 149 

in the youth who allows his conscience to be blunted 
by evil communications. The avenues of evil must 
be closed. 

Juvenal, a Pagan moralist, gives this advice : 

" Nil dictu foedum visuque hsec limina tangat 
Intra quae puer est." Sat. XIV, 44- 

Let nothing shameful to tell and to be seen, 
Enter those doors within which a child dwells. 

43. Social Duties. — General View: Social du- 
ties arise from the relation of man to man and the 
varied conditions and circumstances under which 
men live. 

In some respects, there is an equality of condi- 
tion : in the great fundamental principles of right 
and justice, all stand on an equal footing. " The 
rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the 
maker of them all." (Proverbs 22 : 2.) There is an 
equality of rights ; and there is due a reciprocity of 
duties ; but in the accidental conditions of life there 
is diversity and contrast, — there is the wise and there 
is the simple ; the learned and the ignorant ; the 
rich and the poor ; the strong and the weak ; the 
moral and the immoral. 

These diversities in gifts and character are partly 
from causes too recondite to be seen and known ; in 
part, from what we call the accidents of birth and of 
life ; and in large part they result from the use 
the individual makes of the faculties and means be- 
stowed upon him by nature. 

Whatever the causes, the facts exist, and need 



150 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

careful consideration ; hence the wide scope there is 
for the exercise of the better feelings of humanity 
in social duties. 

Friendships, love and care in home relations, in 
business and civic matters — the affections for these 
obligations — we have by nature. They are natural 
affections and are moral in an elementary sense. 
There is no virtue in conformity to them. There is 
a great lack of virtue in the neglect of them. Vir- 
tue can arise only when the exercise of the nat- 
ural affections is accompanied with sacrifice or per- 
sonal danger, as in warding off harm from the de- 
fenseless. 

Philanthropy \ Benevolence : Love to man and 
good-will are natural affections of the soul ; and if 
these good qualities have been more or less sup- 
planted by contra dispositions, namely, by misan- 
thropy and malevolence, it is due to sin and 
transgression, and argues an abnormal state of the 
soul. 

" We are all by nature brethren, placed in the 
same or in similar circumstances, subject to the 
same wants and infirmities, endowed with the same 
faculties, and equally dependent on the great Au- 
thor of our being ; we cannot be happy but in the 
society of one another, and from one another we 
daily receive, or may receive, important services. 
These considerations recommend the great duty of 
universal benevolence, which is not more beneficial to 
others than to ourselves ; for it makes us happy in 
our own minds, and amiable in the minds of all 
who know us." — Beat tie, in Moral Science. 



SOCIAL DUTIES. 151 

"And now, Philanthropy! thy rays divine 
Dart round the globe, from Zembla to the Line; 
O'er each dark prison plays the cheering light 
Like Northern lustres o'er the vault of night. 
From realm to realm, with cross or crescent crown'd, 
Where'er Mankind and Misery are found, 
O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow, 
Tlvy Howard, journeying, seeks the house of woe. 
He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth, 
Profuse of toil, and prodigal of health. 
Leads stern-eyed Justice to the dark domains, 

If not to sever, to relax the chains: 

Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife, 
To her fond husband liberty and life." 

— Thos. Bro-vn. 

Hospitality : Webster defines it, "The reception 
and entertainment of strangers or guests without 
reward, or with kind and generous liberality." 

This virtue, sentiment and idea of duty is native 
to the heart of humanity, and among all people is 
very generally honored. Exceptions there have 
been and are, and the frown of disapproval marks 
the general rule and law. 

Atrocious instances have met with severe rebuke 
and punishment. The refusal of the tribe of Benja- 
min to deliver up to merited punishment those 
vile and wicked men who disgraced all Israel by a 
flagrant violation of the rights and duties of hospi- 
tality resulted in forty thousand slain of their men 
of war — all the tribe but six hundred — a remnant 
spared that the. tribe might not be extinguished. 

Among many noteworthy instances of hospitality 
is that of the poor negro woman, in the heart of Af- 
rica, towards that celebrated explorer Mungo Park. 



152 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

We have a striking instance of the fitness and beauty 
of the sentiment and duty of hospitality in Queen 
Dido's word of welcome to ^Eneas, when, after the 
Trojan disaster and a tempestuous voyage, he, with 
his followers, landed upon her shores ; thus : 

" Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." Lib. i, line 630. 
Not ignorant of misfortune I learn to succour the unhappy. 

And another instance in the friendly greeting 
"What cheer?" with which Narragansett Indians 
hailed Roger Williams, as his canoe approached in 
search of a settlement which he made, and called 
Providence. "Love ye the stranger; for ye were 
strangers in the land of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 
10:19.) 

44. The Ethics of Amusement.— That we are 
constituted for a certain degree of light enjoyment 
is evident from the fondness of children for play and 
of youth for sports and games of various kinds. 
Little boys love to contest with each other in run- 
ning a race. They delight in flying a kite, especially 
when grandpa helps them ; and the larger ones 
delight in the bat and ball ; and the girls with the 
boys, great and small, love the croquet ground, 
lawn-tennis, rowing and skating. These games are 
exhilarating, healthy, and quicken and invigorate 
the powers of body, soul and spirit. Yet valuable 
amusements can be degraded, and are when they are 
indulged in to excess. 

In games there is a desire to excel. This is nat- 
ural and harmless and gives a zest to the amuse- 



THE ETHICS OF AMUSEMENT. 153 

ment, when this is a simple desire for the supremacy 
unaccompanied with thoughts or feelings of triumph 
over the defeat of contending playmates; but the 
moment there enters into the soul a pleasure or sat- 
isfaction from the chagrin of another, or the moment 
that the desire of supremacy is carried to the degree 
of a feeling of triumph on the one side, and of pain 
on the other side from defeat, then the good morals 
of the amusement have departed, and there enters a 
vicious tendency. Amusements, to be moral, must 
be for the sake of the amusement, and the resulting 
good. When evil results, then they become im- 
moral. Amusements in themselves innocent when 
engaged in with moderation, in a temperate manner, 
may become evil from too long continuance, excess 
of zeal, or from being conjoined with bad habits, as 
the use of slang words, coarse jests, or vulgar re- 
marks — even to profane language ; and from in- 
dulgence in cheat, fraud, white-lies — all which tend 
to accustom one to bad habits. 

There is, too, another point of view that shows an 
ethic-character. Some persons may engage in amuse- 
ments who have no difficulty in submitting them- 
selves to the proper restraints of reason and a good 
conscience, and so to them the amusement is harm- 
less ; but more persons have not this self-control, and 
with them amusement degenerates into vice. Now, 
what is duty ? Doubtless it is the duty of the self- 
poised, those who can amuse themselves innocently, 
to forego certain amusements provided thereby they 
can help their weaker friend or neighbor to recover 
from a bad habit. 



154 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Benevolence and good-will require self-sacrifice. 
There is the duty of self-denial even as to things 
harmless. My neighbor has not the decision and 
self-control necessary to temperance in certain 
amusements. He must then abstain entirely, and it 
is my duty to encourage and help him by my own 
entire abstinence. 

This is an ethic aspect in application to my use 
or disuse of certain amusements — precisely the prin- 
ciple and ethic character that applies to temperance 
in drink. One man knows how to drink pure wine 
temperately and with useful effect ; another and the 
major part do not. These run into excess, and 
so the good becomes bad. This is the ethic princi- 
ple in temperance societies. It is not that there is 
no good in any of the beverages, but it is that as 
this good is not essential to my life and well-being, I 
will forego it, to promote the good of my neighbor. 
The ethic character is in this limitation. 

The conclusion must be that amusements may 
properly be indulged in, so far as they are consistent 
with the duties of life, are subordinate to the higher 
principles of life, and that it is the duty of each one 
to carefully study his duty in this comparative view 
of it. 



division iii. political ethics. 

45. General View; Special Application.— 
Political ethics have for their subject moral con- 
siderations in the conduct of the municipal, state 
and national affairs of the people, and in general 



POLITICAL ETHICS; GENERAL VIEW. 155 

how the ends of justice as to all the natural rights 
of the people are to be attained, in the enactment 
and administration of law. In this view, if it be 
granted, that an individual has obtained rightful 
ownership to certain lands or other property, it is a 
question of political ethics, under what limitations, 
if any, he should enjoy this right ; for instance, to 
cite Dr. Lieber's examples : " Whether, under certain 
given circumstances, this general right of property 
is best secured by unlimited possession or by reverti- 
ble titles, as was the case in the Mosaic law ; whether 
the general principle demands, under the given 
circumstances, that the accumulation of property as 
well as its division should be unlimited ; or whether 
it is wise to prevent division below a certain standard, 
as is the case in Sweden and some other countries ; 
or prevent accumulation beyond a certain limit, as 
Solon prescribed. The whole great question of con- 
stitutions with respect to everything that is not 
strictly a principle of natural law — e. g., protection 
of personal liberty, of freedom from molestation as 
long as no wrong is done, of a degree of protection 
extended even to the evildoer, and while we bring 
him to punishment — belongs to political ethics.'' 

Other questions belonging to this subject are — 
how long ought a senator or a peer to hold office? 
For six years, as in the United States ; for life, as it 
was in France ; or for a hereditary period, as in Eng- 
land ; and what the qualifications for the office ; and 
is it ethical, in order to hold on to an order of suc- 
cession in monarchical governments, to have the 
throne occupied by a female monarch ? 



156 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

The moral considerations involved in these and 
like questions are recondite and beyond the limit of 
this inquiry. 

General ethic laws and considerations must guide 
in the solution of them ; but they cannot be speci- 
fically determined except in the light of facts and 
experience. 

Political ethics is applicable to international law, 
an extensive subject in itself. All that can here be 
said of it is that international friendships and good- 
will are best secured and cemented by a mutual in- 
terchange of good offices, in all sincerity and hon- 
esty, with a keen perception of what is right and 
just. 

For the attainment of these ends the statesman 
must be " wise as the serpent, harmless as the 
dove." 

The following extract from Mrs. Barbauld exhi- 
bits the ground-principle in political ethics : " We 
act as a nation, when through the organ of the legis- 
lative power which speaks the will of the nation, 
and by means of the executive power which does 
the will of the nation, we enact laws, form alliances, 
make war or peace, dispose of the public money, 
or do any of those things which belong to us in our 
collective capacity ; and we are called upon to re- 
pent of national sins because we can help them, 
and because we ought to help them. We are not 
to imagine we can make government the scapegoat 
to answer for our follies and our crimes. The blame 
rests where the power ultimately rests. It were 
trifling with our consciences to endeavor to separate 



POLITICAL ETHICS; APPLICATION OF. J57 

the acts of governors sanctioned by the nation 
from the acts of the nation ; for in every transac- 
tion the principal is answerable for the conduct of 
the agents he employs. If the maxim that " the 
king can do no wrong " throws upon ministers the 
responsibility because without ministers no wrong 
can be done, the same reason throws it from them 
upon the people, without whom ministers could do 
no wrong. 

" The vices of nations may be divided into those 
which relate to their own internal proceedings and 
to their relations with other states. With regard to 
the first, the causes for humiliation are various. 
Many nations are guilty of the crime of permitting 
oppressive laws and bad governments to remain 
among them, by which the poor are crushed, and 
the lives of the innocent are laid at the mercy of 
wicked and arbitrary men. This is a national sin 
of the deepest dye, as it involves in it most others. 
It is painful to reflect how many atrocious govern- 
ments there are in the world, and how little even 
they who enjoy good ones seem to understand their 
true nature. We are apt to speak of the happiness 
of living under a mild government as if it were 
like the happiness of living under an indulgent cli- 
mate ; and when we thank God for it we rank it 
with the blessings of the air and the soil ; whereas 
we ought to ask God for wisdom and virtue to live 
under a good government, for a good government 
is the first of national duties. It is indeed a happi- 
ness, and one which demands our most grateful 
thanks, to be born under one which spares us the 



158 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

trouble and hazard of changing it ; but a people 
born under a good government will probably not 
die under one, if they conceive of it as an indolent 
and passive happiness, to be left for its preservation 
to fortunate conjectures, and the floating and vari- 
able chances of incalculable events. Our second 
duty is to keep it good." 

46. Liberty; Its Substance. — The substance 
of liberty or freedom consists in the guarantees which 
the individual has from the invasion of his rights by 
a stronger party, whether this party be an individual, 
the public at large, or the government. 

The same truth applies to a nation ; hence we speak 
of national liberty, or independence from foreign 
interference. Our fathers suffered, fought and bled 
for this, in the time of the American Revolution, the 
memorable seven years' struggle in 1776-83. 

The following extracts from a distinguished 
writer bear on this subject : " It is impossible to 
imagine liberty in its fullness, if the people as a 
totality, the country, the nation, whatever name may 
be preferred, or its government, is not independent 
of foreign interference. The country must have 
what the Greeks called autonomy. This implies that 
the country must have the right, and of course the 
power, of establishing that government which it 
considers best, unexposed to interference from with- 
out or pressure from above. No foreigner must dic- 
tate : No extra-governmental principle, no divine 
right, or 'principle of legitimacy ' must act in the 
foundation of the government ; no claim superior to 



LI BERT T; ITS SUBSTAXCE. 159 

that of the people, that is, superior to national 
sovereignty, must be allowed. This independence 
or national self-government further implies that, the 
civil government of free choice or free acquiescence 
being established, no influence from without besides 
that of freely acknowledged justice, fairness and 
morality must be admitted. There must then be 
the requisite strength to resist when necessary. 

The history of the nineteenth century, but 
especially that of our own age, is full of instances of 
interference with the autonomy of nations or states. 
Italy, Germany, especially Hessia, Spain, Hungary, 
furnish numerous instances.. Cases may occur, in- 
deed, in which foreign interference becomes imper- 
ative. 

All we can then say is, that the people's liberty, 
so far, is gone, and must be recovered. No one 
will maintain that interference with Turkish affairs 
at the present time is wrong, in those powers who 
resist Russian influence in that quarter, but no one 
will say either that Turkey enjoys full autonomy. 
The very existence of Turkey depends upon foreign 
sufferance. 

On the other hand, it must be remembered that 
this unstinted autonomy is greatly endangered at 
home, by interfering with the domestic affairs of for- 
eigners. 

" The opinion, therefore, urged by Washington, that 
we should keep ourselves aloof from foreign politics, 
is of far greater weight than those believe who take 
it merely with reference to foreign alliances and 
ensuing wars."- — Lieber s Civil Liberty. 



160 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Lieber finds that the guaranties of liberty are 
in institutions ; hence that liberty secured to man is 
" institutional liberty." 

Institutions, natural, social and political, the fam- 
ily, the Sabbath, public-school education, Magna 
Charta, the judiciary and many others, are doubtless 
all in their several spheres promotive of liberty. But 
the very substratum, substance, essence of liberty is 
alone in the inward man ; in the law of his soul ; in a 
disposition to a ready obedience to the moral law, as 
summed up in the two great commandments. 
Liberty, its substance, its essence, is in the character 
of the man, in his habitual subjection to the limita- 
tions imposed by the Creator. 

Magna Charta, " The Great Charter " of liberties, 
originally granted by King John (a. D. 121 5) to the 
clergy, barons and freemen of England, and con- 
firmed by the subsequent rulers, is justly regarded as 
the most important part of the British constitution. 
In the articles relating to taxation is to be found 
the constitutional principle that no tax shall be 
levied except by consent of the people taxed, 
which consent may be expressed by their repre- 
sentatives. 

The violation of this principle was one of the 
items of complaint in our Declaration of Independ- 
ence, 1776. "The Magna Charta was a writing 
declaring the people of England exempted from 
certain oppressions, and entitled to certain privileges, 
and it contained sixty-three different clauses — only 
the most vexatious tyranny which kings could 
exercise over the people could make such clauses 



RELIGIOUS LI BERT T. 161 

necessary. These for instance: that the goods of 
every free man shall be disposed of, after his death, 
according to his will; that if he die without making 
a will, his children shall succeed to his property; 
that no officer of the crown shall take horses, carts 
or wood, without the consent of the owner. 

Articles 39 and 40, in Lord Chatham's judgment, 
and by general consent, are the most important 
ones, as securing all civil rights belonging to free- 
men, thus: "Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel im- 
prisonetur. . . " "No freeman shall be taken, 

or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold or 
liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, 
or any otherwise destroyed, nor will we pass upon 
him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of 
his peers, or by the law of the land. We will sell to 
no man, we will not deny or defer to any man 
justice or right." 

47. Religious Liberty. — Religious liberty is 
freedom to worship according to one's conscience, 
provided this conscience does not offend against 
moral principle and right. 

In the United States, the government has nothing 
to do with the maintenance of religion by pecuniary 
or material aid. This nonrelation between govern- 
ment and religion is commonly called the "Separa- 
tion of Church and State." This separation is 
entirely on material or concrete grounds. On moral 
and on vital grounds there must always be a close 
relation between the church and the state. 

The church as an organization could not securely 



162 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

exist without the protection of the state, for it 
would be exposed to the violence of men who know 
not the fear nor the love of God ; and the state, 
should it neglect its duty to protect its citizens in 
freedom of worship, would drive pure religion as 
well as liberty from its borders, and the govern- 
ment would soon degenerate into a misrule of 
ignorance, bigotry and anarchy, without the sem- 
blance of liberty. History proves this; but without 
the facts of history, the proposition is logical and is 
necessarily true ; because the perfection of religion, 
its highest idea, is in the freedom of the soul from 
the rule of wrong desires, and in its ready obedience 
to the law of right. Thus, the true religious citizen 
is the ideal freeman, and a true religion tends to 
liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is 
liberty." (2 Corinthians 3 : 17.) "But whoso looketh 
into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth there- 
in, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the 
work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." 
(James 1 : 25.) "So speak ye, and so do, as they 
that shall be judged by the law of liberty." (James 
2: 12.) 

These scripture citations show that there is a law 
of liberty, not a law that restrains liberty, but a law 
that gives rise to liberty and warrants us in the 
use and enjoyment of it. 

The law of liberty is in an inward state or law of 
the soul, wherein is the Spirit of the Lord that 
manifests itself in a doing of the word, and in good 
deeds. 

The law of liberty as here cited is indeed the law 



PERSONAL LIBERT I'. 163 

prescribed for the religious man. It is nevertheless 
a law entirely in accord with nature as well as with 
logic and philosophy; and the essential element of 
liberty is precisely the same in its application to the 
moral man in all his relations in life, social, civil 
and institutional. Liberty is not an absolute state 
of independence that a man has an absolute right to. 
It is conditioned, and conditioned on a certain law of 
liberty, that must first exist in the man's soul, and 
manifest itself by his deeds; and if there be not this 
evidence of liberty, and of an existing law of 
liberty, within the man, and of its development into 
a fitness for the enjoyment of liberty; then that man 
has no claim to take part or to act in determining 
the institutions and the limitations of liberty. 

48. Personal Liberty. — Personal liberty means 
that a man has a right to the use of his powers and 
faculties, physical, intellectual, moral and religious, 
as he pleases, provided that in the use of them he 
does not stand in the way of the rights of his fellow 
men. 

To illustrate what is personal liberty by examples 
of what is not; this proviso forbids: 

(1) Throwing stones, firing off pistols, exploding 
India-crackers on the street or frequented highway, 
or in public or private grounds, and all acts of this 
kind, even though at the moment you may see no 
one in range. 

(2) It forbids corrupting the young and the 
ignorant by immoral speech and the circulation of a 
literature advocating doctrines and practices contrary 



164 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

to sound morals and to law based upon constitu- 
tional morality. 

This rule of liberty is entirely compatible with a 
freedom of speech, and of the press, that does not 
run into a licentiousness of liberty, which ought 
never to be tolerated. 

(3) It forbids idleness or the disuse of our facul- 
ties, since the proper use of them is an important 
factor in the well-being of the community, which 
protects the individual in his rights; hence, when a 
man is habitually idle, and without visible means of 
support, he is a vagrant and is properly sent to the, 
workhouse, for "Idleness is the mother of vice." 

49. Rights: General View. — The right is a 
moral idea arising from man's moral nature which 
distinguishes between the right and the wrong. 

The lower animals, having no moral nature, have 
no idea of right or of wrong ; but that this idea is uni- 
versal with mankind is evident from the fact that all 
men, who for any reason have regard to the respect 
and good-will of men, predicate their acts — those 
that affect their fellow-men — on some ground of right. 

A stakes out a piece of land in some new territory 
and claims it, on the ground of a squatter's right, 
the right of first occupation ; but B, as the agent of 
a railroad corporation, claims the same land in virtue 
of a prior right through an alleged government grant. 

Here are conflicting claims, both set up on the 
ground and under the idea of a right. A and B both 
say that they want only what is right. They would 
not dare to say that they want what is wrong — even 



RIGHTS: GENERAL VIEW. 165 

though they might be bad enough in disposition to 
say it, for a declaration of this sort would at once 
condemn them and their cause. 

So, too, when one nation declares war against 
another, it is ostensibly on the ground of right. A 
government and people persuade themselves, and 
would persuade all men, the world over, that their 
rights have been violated and must be vindicated. 
In the American Revolution, England held that she 
had a right to tax America. On the other hand, 
America held that taxation without representation 
was not right. In the recent German-Samoan 
scrimmage, made famous by subsequent disaster, 
each party held that it fired on the other in self- 
defence. 

Thus it appears that the question, What is right ? 
is often a question that requires, for its correct solu- 
tion, an accurate knowledge of the facts involved, 
and a sound judgment and unprejudiced feelings in 
the consideration of them. 

Hence the need and the function of the judiciary. 

These considerations and instances prove that 
right, as a moral idea, is implanted in the soul of 
man. It is the idea of adherence to what is true, 
just and conformable to facts. A right is something 
properly claimed or possessed, and is in accord with 
the laws of man's nature, physical, moral. 

Thus any man has a right to the air he breathes, 
to water and fish from the river or ocean ; in gen- 
eral, he has a right to the products of his toil. 

A right is the substance of what is, or is possessed 
by right. Natural rights, then,, are the rights a man 



166 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

has in virtue of the endowments of his nature in its 
best estate. 

Rights and duties are correlative and reciprocal. 
They are correlative when it is a duty to maintain a 
right ; reciprocal, when duty results from another's 
right. 

The right deals with the abstract ; there is no 
question about its existence ; all men are conscious 
of it. 

A right deals with the concrete, and it is often 
difficult to determine what it is. Some rights called 
"natural rights" are intuitively seen ; as a man's 
right, under proper limitations, to air, fire, water, life 
and liberty. Other rights require wisdom, judgment 
and experience for their proper determination. Of 
these are social rights, civil rights, property rights. 

A right is quite different from a duty. 

A right is something possessed or claimed by me ; 
or else conceded or granted to another. A duty is 
nothing possessed or claimed, but is something that 
ought tc be done. 

Duty, then, has the pre-eminence. In ethic rela- 
tion the first inquiry is about duty — What ought I 
to do ? The second inquiry is about rights that arise 
in view of duty. 

Mutual obligation arises when each man is, by 
natural law, possessed of like rights with his 
neighbor. 

50. Property Rights: General View. — We 
have seen that every man has a natural right to air, 
water, fire, the sunlight and heat, in common with 



PROPER TT in GUTS: GENERAL VIEW. 167 

all men so far as bounteous nature affords enough of 
these necessary elements of existence, as she gen- 
erally does. 

But in some situations even water and fuel fail, 
and so far as this failure results from lack of fore- 
sight or from improvidence, the short-sighted and 
improvident have not the same rights as those who 
have exercised care and diligence. There were five 
wise maidens who put oil into their lamps, and five 
foolish ones, who failed to provide oil. 

Besides air, water, sunlight, there are other things, 
the right to which must be acquired by some degree 
of exertion. If you would have a fish, you must 
catch it ; a fire, you must make it, and must see to 
it that it does no harm, for fire, though a good ser- 
vant, is a bad master ; if a berry, you must pick it ; a 
tree, you must plant it, unless you find one already 
planted and not claimed. 

These things, and numerous others, as well as 
land for cultivation, become our property by acqui- 
sition and occupation, when not already occupied by 
the prior right of some other person. 

In whatever way a man has acquired property, 
whether by priority of possession, by labor, by gift, 
by inheritance, he has a right to it. If property has 
been wrested from another contrary to law, moral or 
civil, the injured person may recover his rights by 
the use of such means as civil law and social institu- 
tions provide. If there are no remedial laws or in- 
stitutions, then he should cheerfully abandon his 
rights, or else rely on his own individual power of 
redress in the use of means within the restrictions of 



1G8 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

man's moral nature ; but when property has been 
obtained by force or by fraud, if there be no right- 
ful individual claimant, the property should revert to 
the state for the public benefit. 

51. Origin of Right to Property. — This is 
found in the Divine grant given in Genesis 1 : 28,29, 
"And God said, Replenish the earth and subdue it, 
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
moveth upon the earth. 

"And God said, "Behold, I have given you every 
herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the 
earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a 
tree yielding seed : to you it shall be for meat." 

"And the Lord God took the man, and put him 
into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it." 
(Genesis 2 : 15.) 

The original title to property comes, then, from the 
Creator ; and according to the terms of it, it con- 
sists in personals or movables, such as fish, fowl, 
herbs bearing seed, and fruit trees, and so much of 
soil as a man can dress and keep. 

These are the general terms or outline of title. 
Particular instances of title must be determined or 
decided by the nature or constitution of man ; and 
this determination or decision will be correct just in 
proportion as the true constitution of man is known 
and acted upon. 

We see that the constitution of man tends to 
patriarchal relations and government, to tribal rela- 
tions and government, to national relations and gov- 



ORIGIN OF RIGHT TO PROPERTY. 169 

eminent ; and property rights follow these relations 
and are modified by them. The patriarch Abraham 
lived a pastoral life — had no landed property, only 
the use of such as he occupied from time to time 
for temporary residence and the feeding of his 
flocks and herds. 

When his loved wife Sarah died, Abraham desired 
to possess for a burial-place a field belonging to 
Ephron, the Hittite, and for four hundred shekels of 
silver he bought the field, and the cave therein ; and 
all the trees that were in the field were made sure 
unto Abraham for a possession, in the presence of 
the children of Heth, before all that went in at the 
gate of his city. "And the field and the cave that 
is therein were made sure unto Abraham, for a pos- 
session of a burying-place, by the sons of Heth." 
(Genesis 23 : 20.) 

This is the first recorded instance of the purchase 
of land for a sum of money. The purchase was 
made by a man accustomed to a wandering life, of 
an individual belonging to a people of fixed habita- 
tions. The people or children of Heth doubtless 
had by possession and improvement such title to 
the land where they lived as qualified them to sell 
parcels of it for money. This is the right a people 
or nation has to the land they have taken possession 
of and occupy. It is a permanent right. The land 
at first belongs to the people collectively — none to 
individuals ; but the collective body of the people, 
under the form and institution of civil government, 
for a valuable consideration, gives title to individuals 
to certain parcels of land ; and thus the individual, 



170 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

the private party, by doing something, or by paying 
something, for the benefit of the whole people, be- 
comes the owner of a certain tract or certain parcel 
of land. Also Virgil gives us a brief account of 
Queen Dido's purchase from the Libyans of the site 
of Carthage — originally a hide of land — namely, as 
much land as could be enclosed by a bull's hide. 

The received explanation as to this measurement 
of land is that the hide was cut into narrow strips. 

"Mercatique solum, facti de nomine Bjrsam, 
Taurino quantum possent circumdare tergo." 

—vEncicL Bk. I, 3G7-S. 

And they bought ground, from the name of the act, Bvrsa, 
As much as they were able to encompass with a bullock's hide. 

This land-sale occurred six hundred to eight hun- 
dred years after the land-purchase by Abraham. 

52. Land-Title in the United States. — The 
first emigrants from Europe who settled upon the 
Atlantic coast of North America, bought from time 
to time of the native Americans, the Indians, their 
right and title to tracts of country more or less 
extensive. This Indian right could not be very val- 
uable, as, for the most part, it was only the right of 
*savage men, who lived by hunting and fishing, save 
some little cultivation of Indian corn, hence the pur- 
chase-money or other consideration was small. 

The Colonial, the State, and the United States 
Governments that were successively formed or 
organized by the immigrant colonists and their 
descendants thus owned in trust for the entire people 



LAND-TITLE IN UNITED STATES. 171 

all the lands so purchased of the Indians, and have 
good right to sell and dispose of them according to 
the will of the people, as expressed in laws enacted 
by representatives ; namely, men elected by the 
people to meet in general assembly or congress, to 
make laws for the government of the people, and for 
the disposition of public affairs. 

Accordingly, by act of Congress, the public lands 
have been surveyed into townships six miles square, 
containing thirty-six sections, each a mile square, 
and each section being subdivided into quarter- 
sections of one hundred and sixty acres each ; and 
these subdivisions of land have been disposed of in 
various ways, under sundry legislative acts. Some 
of the lands have been set apart and given by the 
United States to the separate States, as a 
foundation fund for university and public school 
education, or for educational institutions of a public 
character. Many alternate sections on the lines of 
projected railroads have been conditionally granted 
in aid of railroad building, for the purpose of open- 
ing up to settlement a route or locality otherwise 
almost inaccessible. 

Many quarter-sections have been bestowed upon 
soldiers — one hundred and sixty acres to each soldier 
— as a bounty for service in the wars of the United 
States. Many lands have been sold at public sale by 
auction to the highest bidder, and after a public sale 
the lands which were not bid off have been on sale, 
or private entry, at the United States land offices, 
to anyone who wished to buy at the minimum price, 
one dollar and twenty-five cents to two dollars 



172 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

and fifty cents an acre. And also many tracts of 
land — quarter-sections — for a small consideration — 
about fifteen dollars — have been sold to the first 
settler thereon, to encourage settlement as well as to 
assist the citizen of small means to the possession 
of a home and homestead and its improvement and 
culture. 

These several ways of disposing of and giving 
title to the government lands are legitimate; and 
hence the title the individual obtains is perfect and 
absolute. 

Yet there is danger of unwise, indiscreet legisla- 
tion and abuse of public trust ; and the public lands, 
in some cases, have been disposed of without due 
consideration. 

There are, however, yet left extensive tracts, and 
it behooves the present and the rising generation 
to look sharply to legislative acts relating to them. 
The United States government does very properly 
reserve mineral lands, and sells timber lands at a 
higher valuation than farm lands. 

The main object of this sketch of land-tenure in 
the United States is to show the legitimacy and 
certainty of title to every man who has come to be 
a land-owner — to hold a possession founded in man's 
social, civil and political institutions in accord with 
human nature — a title irreversible except by social 
and national disintegration, and a backward stride 
into barbarism. A possession, for which he has in 
some form given "value received," most commonly, 
has paid money; and money — silver and gold — has 
cost labor. Thus it is that man's toil and labor 



BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTS. 173 

enter into every kind of property, and stamp it as 
a mail s own. 

Yet often the fear of land-monopoly finds expres- 
sion. There appears to be little danger in the 
United States that an individual or a corporation 
will hold on a long time to large tracts of land. 
Want of money, taxes and other expenses will in- 
duce sales. It might, however, be in accord with 
a sound morality and public policy to limit by law 
land-acquisitions to a reasonable amount ; and to re- 
quire the equal division of a landed estate among 
the heirs. 

But hostile legislation for the purpose of depriv- 
ing the individual of his acquired rights, either di- 
rectly by confiscation, or indirectly by unequal 
taxation, is robbery, and is in violation of the eighth 
commandment — "Thou shalt not steal/' and of the 
tenth, — " thou shalt not covet anything that is thy 
neighbor s." 

53. Blackstone on the Right of Property. — 
Some of the comments of Blackstone on the Right 
to Property will here be appropriate. 

" Communion of goods seems not to have been applicable, even 
in the earliest ages, to aught but the substance of the thing, nor 
could be extended to the use of it. For by the law of nature 
and of reason, he who first began to use it, acquired therein a 
kind of transient property, that lasted so long as he was using 
it, and no longer; or to speak with greater precision, the right of 
possession continued for the same time only that the act of pos- 
session lasted. Thus the ground was in common, and no part of 
it was the permanent property of any man in particular; yet who- 
ever was in the occupation of any determinate spot of it, for rest, 



m MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

for shade, or the like, acquired for the time a sort of ownership, 
from which it would have been unjust, and contrary to the law of 
nature, to have driven him by force ; but the instant he quitted 
the use or occupation of it, another might seize it without injus- 
tice. Thus also a vine or other tree might be said to be in 
common, as all men were equally entitled to its produce ; and 
yet any private individual might gain the sole property of the 
fruit, which he had gathered for his own repast ; a doctrine 
well illustrated by Cicero, who compares the world to a great 
theatre, which is common to the public, and yet the place which 
any man has taken is for the time his own. 

But when mankind increased in number, craft and ambition, it 
became necessary to entertain conceptions of more permanent 
dominion, and to appropriate to individuals not the immediate 
use only, but the very substance of the thing to be used. Other- 
wise, innumerable tumults must have arisen, and the good order 
of the world have been continually broken and disturbed, while 
a variety of persons were striving who should get the first occu- 
pation of the same thing, or disputing which of them had 
actually gained it. 

As human life also grew more and more refined, abundance of 
conveniences were devised to render it more easj-, commodious, 
and agreeable as habitations for shelter and safety, and raiment tor 
warmth and decency. But no man would be at the trouble to 
provide either, so long as he had only a usufructuary property 
in them, which was to cease the instant he quitted possession ; 
if, as soon as he walked out of his tent, or pulled off his gar- 
ment, the next stranger who came by would have the right to 
inhabit the one and to wear the other. 

In the case of habitations in particular, it was natural to ob- 
serve, that even the brute creation, to whom everything else was 
in common, maintained a kind of permanent property in their 
dwellings, especially for the protection of their young ; that the 
birds of the air had nests, and the beasts of the fields had caverns, 
the invasion of which they esteemed a very flagrant injustice, 
and would sacrifice their lives to preserve them. 

Hence, a property was soon established in every man's house 
and homestall which seem to have been originally mere tempo- 
rary huts or movable cabins, suited to the design of Providence 



BLACKSTON&S COMMENTS. 175 



for more speedily peopling the earth and suited to the wander- 
ing life of their owners before any extensive property in the soil 
or ground was established. 

And there can be no doubt but that movables of every 
kind became sooner appropriated than the permanent, substan- 
tial soil ; partly because they were more susceptible of a long 
occupance, which might be continued for months together with- 
out any sensible interruption, and at length by usage ripen into 
an established right ; but principally because few of them could 
be fit for use, till improved and meliorated by the bodily labor of 
the occupant ; which bodily labor bestowed upon any subject 
which before laj' in common to all men, is universally allowed 
to give the fairest and most reasonable title to an exclusive 
property therein. 

The article of food was a more immediate call, and, therefore, 
a more early consideration. Such as were not contented with 
the spontaneous product of the earth, sought for a more solid 
refreshment in the flesh of beasts, which they obtained by 
hunting. But the frequent disappointments incident to that 
method of provision induced them to gather together such 
animals as were of a more tame and sequacious nature; and to 
establish a permanent property in their flocks and herds, in order 
to sustain themselves in a less precarious manner, partly by the 
milk of the dams, and partly by the flesh of the young. The 
support of these, their cattle, made the article of water also a 
very important point. And, therefore, the book of Genesis (the 
most venerable monument of antiquity, considered merely with 
a view to history) will furnish us with frequent instances of the 
violent contentions concerning wells, the exclusive property of 
which appears to have been established in the first digger or 
occupant, even in such places where the ground and herbage 
remained yet in common. 

Thus we find Abraham, who was but a sojourner, asserting 
his right to a well in the country of Abimelech, and exacting an 
oath for his security, ' because he had digged that well.' And 
Isaac, about ninety years afterwards, reclaimed this, his father's 
property ; and after much contention with the Philistines, was 
suffered to enjoy it in peace. 

As the world by degrees grew more populous, it daily became 



176 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



more difficult to find new spots to inhabit, without encroaching 
upon former occupants ; and by constantly occupying the same 
individual spot, the fruits of the earth were consumed, and its 
spontaneous produce destroyed, without any provision for a 
future supply. 

It therefore became necessary to pursue some regular method 
of providing a constant subsistence ; and this necessity produced, 
or at least promoted and encouraged, the art of agriculture, by a 
regular connection and consequence ; introduced and estab- 
lished the idea of a more permanent property in the soil than 
had hitherto been received and adopted. 

It was clear that the earth would not produce her fruits in 
sufficient quantities, without the assistance of tillage ; but who 
would be at the pains of tilling it, if another might watch an 
opportunity to seize upon and enjoy the product of his indus- 
try, art and labor ? Had not, therefore, a separate property in 
lands, as in movables, been vested in some individuals, the 
world must have continued a forest, and men have been mere 
animals of prey ; which, according to some philosophers, is the 
genuine state of nature. Whereas now (so graciously has Provi- 
dence interwoven our duty and our happiness together), the 
result of this very necessity has been the ennobling of the 
human species, by giving it opportunities of improving its 
rational faculties, as well as of exerting its natural. 

Necessity begat property, and in order to insure that property, 
recourse was had to civil society, which brought along with it a 
long train of inseparable concomitants — states, government, laAvs, 
punishments, and the public exercise of religious duties. Thus 
connected together, it was found that a part only of society was 
sufficient to provide, by their manual labor, for the necessary 
subsistence of all ; and leisure was given to others to cultivate 
the human mind, to invent useful arts, and to lay the foundations 
of science. 

The only question remaining is, how this property became 
actually vested ; or what it is that gave a man an exclusive right 
to retain in a permanent manner that specific land which before 
belonged generally to everybody, but particularly to nobody. 

And as we before observed, that occupancy gave the right to 
the temporary use of the soil, so it is agreed upon all hands that 



CIVIL LIBERTY: GENERAL VIEW. 177 

occupancy gave also the original right to the permanent prop- 
erty in the substance of the earth itself, which excludes every- 
one else but the owner from the use of it." 

54. Civil Liberty. — General View: In gen- 
eral, it carries the idea, that the citizen is protected 
in his civil rights ; such rights as he is entitled to by 
the proper laws and institutions of a land of constitu- 
tional freedom. And this protection implies, on his 
part, a counter-obligation to uphold the laws and 
institutions of his country. 

Civil liberty arises from a due consideration of 
man's individual, personal rights, and his social rela- 
tions, his duties, obligations and rights in respect to 
every other man and also to the community as a 
whole. 

It means protection in natural and institutional 
rights, such as a right to the unappropriated fruits 
of the earth, and to the wealth of the seas; and to 
the products of toil, as well as to freedom from 
interference in social, civil and political relations — 
such relations as are in accord with moral and civil 
law and with civil rights and duties. 

In English common law, a man's house is his 
castle — 

" Domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium." 
A most sure refuge to everyone is his own house. 

None but those of his household can enter 
unbidden — not even the king — none save an officer 
of the law empowered by a legal warrant. 

As to warrants: The warrant must name the 
person it is to be served upon. A general warrant 



178 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

without name inserted is not allowable in English 
and in American law. 

The " Habeas Corpus" writ is an important civil 
right ; trial by a jury of one's peers ; the privilege of 
reasonable bail ; proof of guilt to be made by 
the accusing party, not of innocence by the accused ; 
counsel and protection in public accusation; — these 
and other guarantees of justice, constitute civil rights. 

Freedom of public assembly and discussion, liberty 
of speech and of the press, and the right of petition, 
liberty to come and go at will, to determine one's 
residence and business, are all regarded as primary 
civil rights ; yet these all must have their limitations, 
especially in time of war and civil strife, when it is 
sometimes necessary for the public safety to abridge 
or to suspend these rights. 

55. CIVIL DUTIES. — Civil duties include respect 
for the customs, laws and institutions of our 
country, and for the officials, civic, legislative, judi- 
cial and executive, whose function it is to determine 
and enforce them ; in short, require us to honor, 
obey and support the government ; which duties can 
be done only by the diligent, moral and patriotic 
citizen pursuing an honest and useful vocation, and 
ready to deny himself for the public weal. 

Reciprocal rights and duties there are on the part 
of the State or National Government. 

Obvious is the duty of economy in the use of 
public means ; not, however, a penny-wise and 
pound-foolish economy. 

Measures must be instituted for the maintenance 



OBEDIENCE TO LA W. 179 

of individual and national rights ; for an efficient 
army and navy, for good harbors, lighthouses, coast 
defenses, and sundry fortifications. The great 
arteries of interstate commerce and intercommuni- 
cation must be kept open, not only by removing or 
surmounting natural obstacles, but by a prompt 
setting aside of those of discord and riot. 

In short, the state's duty is to do what the private 
citizen can not or should not do; and is not to do 
what individual or private enterprise can and should 
do, for the contra of this course or policy tends to 
dwarf the citizen. 

To draw correctly this line of distinction between 
public and private rights and duties requires learn- 
ing, experience, judgment, moral perception and 
character, and tests the qualities of the statesman. 

56. Obedience TO Law. — Man's entire nature, 
physical and moral, is one of law ; and the world in 
which he lives, as well as the universe around, exists 
and moves under the reign and guidance of law; 
included is his social nature, whence arise civil rights 
and duties. Law is everywhere, and in every part 
where law is, there must be obedience to it ; else the 
constitution of nature, man inclusive, will come to 
nought — will quick end in destruction. 

There is, then, a physical necessity for obedience 
to law, for without it nature would not exist ; and 
there is a moral necessity for obedience, for self- 
preservation is an instinct of all animate nature; and 
the preservation of whatever has value is a duty, 
and the discharge of duty is the highest good. 



ISO MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Indeed it was shown at the beginning that 
obedience is the ground-principle in morals — 
obedience to the Supreme, as the author of all law 
— : hence, in general, obedience to law; specifically, 
obedience to the civil law. 

The laws and customs of the state and of society, 
when based on the law of right or good morals, are 
then to be obeyed with alacrity, because they are 
right. 

When indifferent as to morals, they must be 
obeyed because disobedience would result in con- 
fusion, and a habit of disobedience, in ruin. The 
law may not be a wise one, may not be a just one, 
but this does not excuse us from obedience when 
it is enforced. If the law is wrong, we are at 
liberty to endeavor to get it amended or repealed. 

When, however, civil laws appear to be contra to 
moral law, the civil law may be obeyed under 
protest, and an appeal may be made to the courts, 
or the appeal may be made prior to compliance with 
the requirements of said law. Thus, in the case of 
a tax unjustly levied, the taxpayer may appeal to 
the judiciary for an injunction to restrain official 
proceedings for the enforcement of collection till the 
legal status of the tax can be determined. 

But if the law be utterly repugnant to the sub- 
ject's sense of right and conscience, then, rather than 
do wrong, it is better to receive with meekness the 
punishment — the penalty attached to the violation 
of said law. 

Man is fallible, and his laws may be fallible — 
contra to the right. The only sure criterion of duty 



INTEREST IN CIVIL AFFAIRS. 1S1 

is in obedience to God, to the moral law originating 
in the constitution of the Creator of all. 

We must obey the authority delegated by the 
social compact to our rulers, when we do not thereby 
disobey the universal law of right, the moral law 
necessarily and universally true — often called the 
Higher-law, or the law of the enlightened con- 
science , thus, when the high priest said to the 
disciples of Jesus: " Did not we straitly command 
you, that ye should not teach in this name ?" " Peter 
and the other apostles answered and said, We ought 
to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5: 28, 29.) 
While obedience to civil law is in general impera- 
tive, and disobedience, under any circumstances, is 
to be deprecated, there must be a degree of flexi- 
bility — some concession on the part of the state to 
the right and conscience of the subject, else there is 
no place for individual self-respect and personal 
liberty. 

Military law is necessarily more strict than civil 
law, and the death penalty is often attached to 
disobedience, for on strict obedience important 
results may depend ; and the soldier who deserts his 
post, and the officer who disregards the orders of 
his superior is highly culpable. 

57. The Duty of Interest in Civil Affairs. 
— "What is everybody's business is nobody's" is a 
common saying, and there is great danger of its be- 
ing a true one in civil affairs. Each citizen has an 
interest in the common weal ; when that suffers he 
individually suffers, and each one should cheerfully 



182 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



contribute of his time and means in proportion to 
his ability and capability, to promote the general 
good, by needful and wise public measures and im- 
provements ; by an economic administration of pub- 
lic finance and material ; by the enactment of just 
and wholesome laws, and a faithful execution of 
them. 

Each citizen should attend to these duties not 
only on his own account, but on the ground of 
good-will, a desire to advance the interests of his 
fellow-citizens, as well as from a sentiment of public 
spirit and patriotism. 

While each one has something to do, has the one 
talent to improve, there are always a few gifted 
in wisdom, executive ability, means and capability 
beyond their fellow-citizens in general. These are 
called the leading men, or the foremost men of the 
community or the State — the men providentially en- 
trusted with ten talents, and to whom much is given, 
of them much is required. 

These foremost men should feel, and to the credit 
of human nature, generally do feel willing to serve 
for the good of all, in positions of honor rather than 
of pecuniary profit ; so all should gladly do what 
they ought and can to sustain the willing leader. 

As an illustrious example of this devotion to 
duty, take that of James Otis, who first manifested 
his patriotism when, to the sacrifice of private inter- 
ests, he, at the call of duty, intrepidly argued, with 
clear logic and electric eloquence, against the 
"Writs of Assistance," by which old England 
would enforce her trade laws, collect duties of the 



SUFFRAGE: A CONDITIONAL RIGHT. 183 

Americans on the goods she sold them — all which 
acts Otis characterized as "taxation without repre- 
sentation," and as an expenditure of public money 
without appropriation by the representatives of the 
people who paid the money, and hence as unconsti- 
tutional acts. 

He foresaw the injustice and evil that would 
come, not from anything already suffered by the 
colonists, but from the false principle involved, and 
certain to work mischief. 

58. Suffrage — A Conditional Right. — The 
right to vote should depend on capability and inter- 
est — these to be determined by the intellectual and 
moral fitness of the voter to understand the ques- 
tion to be voted on, and his relation to it or interest 
in it. 

Thus, if it be a question about the construction or 
repair of a public road, all persons taxed to make or 
repair it might have right to vote upon it ; so as to 
district-school educational questions and all ques- 
tions voted upon. It is the man rightfully interested 
that has right to vote. 

Hence the elective franchise is not a natural 
right, but a privilege granted by the state in consid- 
eration of value received by the state from the 
individual, and hence the ethic of it is in a "quid 
pro quo," and the extent of qualification and service 
on the part of the individual should be carefully de- 
termined. The principle demands that there shall 
be a real interest in the weal of the state. 

This interest may be taken for granted where there 



184 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

is present nativity, or a cetain amount of property 
with respectability. Fitness to vote can only be 
evidenced by a willing offering of something valua- 
ble, and the man who has no moral force, toil or 
money for the benefit and use of the state, can have 
no claim to a part and lot in the direction and man- 
agement of the affairs of the state. 

Universal suffrage, with little restriction, has been 
established by law in the United States. It is ques- 
tionable whether the restrictions are sufficient to 
meet the requirements of expediency ; and yet more 
of a true ethic-principle constituent in the elective 
franchise. 

J. S. Mill advocated the right of woman to the 
ballot, and an educational qualification for all voters. 
Qualifications and limitations there should be. What 
qualifications are necessary to save from a too cheap 
quality of citizenship, let the people and statesmen 
determine. 

59. Liberty of Speech. — Liberty of speech is 
another name for the right of free speech. The 
idea of right is here in the realm of morals, for it is 
accompanied by present considerations of duty and 
obligation. Not all rights are in this category. 
Thus in wandering in the wilderness I have a right 
to acorns, walnuts or other fruit that in my pathless 
course may minister to my need. No idea of duty 
or obligation arises here. My act in appropriating 
nature's gifts affects only myself. I have right to 
the fruit, because I want it. No one's right is in- 
vaded. But in free speech it is quite otherwise. My 



LIBERTY OF SPEECH. 185 

speech may affect the rights of others; hence, it 
must be so ordered as not to violate another's 
rights. 

This fair side of free speech is kept in view and 
attained when men are careful to say only things 
that are true, and in saying them do not contravene 
other points of the moral law ; namely, do not say 
truths that should not be said, that wrong indi- 
viduals and profit no one. 

Nor would it at all times be right to use the lib- 
erty of free speech against a law of the land, even 
though that laiv be in fact contra to right and to the 
true interests of the people. 

A certain freedom of speech, legitimate in general, 
would be out of order in a time of invasion by an 
enemy, when the full aid of every citizen is needed 
to save his country. 

At such a time, to turn aside from the instant duty 
of the hour, to find fault with the laws and institu- 
tions of one's country, is a stab in the back — is 
treason. 

As germane to the subject of free speech, notice 
Judge Tuley's opinion given in Chicago (January, 
1889), in the injunction suit brought by the anarch- 
ists against the police, to prevent their interference 
with anarchist meetings for discussion, peaceable 
they would say — for plotting mischief, the police 
say : 

The opinion as reported runs thus : '" However 
objectionable some of the objects of the society 
may be to the court or to the great body of our 
citizens, the only question is, Are they lawful? 



ISO MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

They have a right to advocate their peculiar views 
in public assembly ; they may discuss any social 
or economic question, may demand the repeal 
of old laws, and the substitution of such new 
ones as may commend themselves to their judg- 
ment, whims or caprices. They may criticise the 
acts of all public officers, from the President of the 
United States, the judge on the bench, down even 
to the policeman. They may even advocate a 
change of our form of government and the substitu- 
tion of another, but peaceably and by means of the 
freeman's weapon — the ballot — not by force or by 
revolution." 

As to this opinion, it may be regarded as correct 
in theory, if the actual facts in the case agree with 
those enumerated in the opinion ; if the objects were 
lawful. It may be that the written constitution, 
laws and rules of the anarchist society set out or 
exhibit only things lawful ; but the question arises, 
do they in fact abide by their own proposals, or are 
these only a fair form of truth to disguise fraud and 
evil intent, like the wooden horse the Greeks gave to 
the Trojans, whereby to honor the Goddess of Wis- 
dom ; which gift, noble and pious in outward appear- 
ance, yet within teeming with a concealed hostile 
band of armed men, the simple and deceived Tro- 
jans accepting from their wily foes drew into their 
walled city, to their own destruction ? 

Thus on pretense of pious regard for the Goddess 
of Liberty, the wily anarchist, with principles that 
undermine liberty, with fair words may conceal a 
treacherous design, and before Judge Tuley's opin- 



LIBERTY OF SPEECH. 187 

ion is accepted as sound and final, the public will 
inquire whether the Haymarket meeting, held osten- 
sibly for peaceable purposes, yet ending in the mas- 
sacre of policemen with dynamite, as well as the 
prior and subsequent advocacy of force to effect 
unlawful and immoral ends, do not justly rule and 
bar anarchist societies outside the pale of lawful 
assemblies. 

It is well to keep in mind the moral of the old 
fable about the captive trumpeter who plead that 
as he himself was unarmed, his captors should spare 
his life. "Yes," was the sharp reply, " but by 
sounding your trumpet, you incite our enemies to 
kill us." 

There is a correct theory of free speech predi- 
cated on the assumed good intent and moral sanity 
of the speaker, which admits of a liberal construc- 
tion to the right of free speech. But after a society 
or organization of men for whatever object have 
repeatedly countenanced the advocacy of immoral 
purposes and unlawful acts, they have lost all claim, 
as an organization, to be regarded as a lawful as- 
sembly, and all claim to the right of free speech, for 
this sacred right is a right given and guaranteed to 
the citizen, by the civil government under which he 
lives, for the protection of its own interests, well- 
being and life, as well as for that of the individual citi- 
zen ; and this end cannot be attained when the right 
and realm of either the state or of the citizen is 
wrongfully invaded. 

Liberty of speech is not a one-sided liberty ; 
there is in it a reciprocal relation, duty and ob- 



188 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

ligation between the individual citizen and the 
people. 

J. S. Mill on Free Speech : No one will accuse 
Mr. Mill of illiberality towards liberty ; yet even 
with him liberty has its limitations. We quote this: 
" No one pretends that actions should be as free as 
opinions. On the contrary, even opinions lose their 
immunity, when the circumstances in which they 
are expressed are such as to constitute their expres- 
sion a positive instigation to some mischievous act. 
An opinion that corn dealers are starvers of the 
poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be 
unmolested when simply circulated through the 
press, but may justly incur punishment when de- 
livered orally to an excited mob assembled before 
the house of a corn dealer, or when handed about 
among the same mob in the form of a placard. 

'" Acts of whatever kind which without justifiable 
cause do harm to others may be, and in the more 
important cases absolutely require to be, con- 
trolled by the unfavorable sentiments, and when 
needful, by the active interference of mankind. 
The liberty of the individual must thus far be lim- 
ited ; he must not make himself a nuisance to 
other people." 

60. Leo XIII on " Liberty of Speech and of 
the Press." — In his Encyclical Letter (1888) Pope 
Leo XIILwrites thus: 

" For right is a moral power which it is absurd to 
suppose that nature has given indifferently to truth 
and falsehood, to justice and injustice. Men have 



LEO XIII ON LIBERTY OF SPEECH. 189 

a right freely and prudently to propagate through- 
out the state whatsoever things are true and hon- 
orable, so that as many as possible may possess 
them ; but false doctrines, than which no mental 
plague is greater, and vices which corrupt the heart, 
should be diligently repressed by public authority, 
lest they insidiously work the ruin of the state. 
The excesses of an unbridled intellect, which really 
end in the oppression of the ignorant multitude, are 
not less rightly restrained by the authority of the 
law than are the injuries inflicted by force upon the 
weak ; and even more so, because by far the greater 
part of the community either absolutely cannot, or 
can only with great difficulty, avoid their allu- 
sions or subtleties, especially such as flatter their 
own passions. 

" If unbridled license of speech and of writing be 
granted to all, nothing will remain sacred and invio- 
late ; even the highest and truest judgment of 
nature, the common and noblest heritage of the 
human race, will not be spared. 

" In regard, however, to such matters of opinion as 
God leaves to man's free discussion, full liberty of 
thought and of speech is naturally within the right 
of everyone, for this liberty never leads men to sup- 
press the truth, but leads often to its discovery and 
manifestation." 

Sound and admirable, provided " false doctrines" 
refer to those contra to moral truth-, as the general 
tenor of the article indicates, and not to what may 
be regarded as true or false by certain individuals, 
societies or schools of thought. 



190 moral and religious science. 
61. Veracity.— 

" He is detestable 
Whose words agree not with his thoughts." 

— Homer's Iliad, IX, 312. 

Man by nature is inclined to tell the truth, and to 
believe what is told him ; but by the perversion of 
good faculties and endowments, temptations to con- 
ceal and deceive, from a consciousness that the 
truth would be damaging to our reputation or sup- 
posed interest, often tend to counteract this good 
disposition in man's nature, and to beget falsehood 
and unbelief. 

Moral truth does not necessarily agree with facts, 
for we may be mistaken as to the fact, and say, 
" There is a man in the moon," when there is none 
except in fancy; or say, that this oar-blade in the 
water is bent, when it is not, but only so appears, 
in virtue of the refraction of the rays of light. 

But duty requires that we inform ourselves as to 
the fact before we make positive statements in re- 
gard to it. This duty is imperative when the fact 
is not one of mere science or observation or experi- 
ment, but is of morals, affecting some person's rep- 
utation. 

The disregard and violation of this duty can often 
be noticed in the utterances of public speakers and 
of newspapers. Willful misstatements and lies are 
sometimes made. These are so evidently wicked as 
hardly to need remark. 

Oftener misstatements are uttered from a habit of 
zeal without knowledge, and with no predetermina- 
tion to do liarm. 



VERA CI TT. 101 



The speaker or writer becomes so accustomed to 
misrepresentation, like the habitual swearer, to 
positive affirmation regarding what he has little 
or no knowledge of, that he acquires the bad 
habit of believing for the moment that to be true 
which, to serve his present purpose, he wants to 
be true. 

This bad and wicked habit often results in great 
injustice and injury to others and destroys one's 
confidence in the veracity of him who indulges 
in this vice; and when once the matter comes to be 
seen in its true light, it reacts on the utterer like the 
cry of the shepherd boy who three times cried 
"Wolf, wolf!" when there was no wolf; and so his 
fourth cry was not regarded when the wolf did in 
very fact attack and destroy his sleep. 

There are many scripture precepts that enforce 
the virtue of veracity: "Keep thy tongue from 
evil, and thy lips from speaking guile." (Psalm 
34: 13.) "Lying lips are abomination to the 
Lord." (Proverbs 12: 22.) "The lip of truth 
shall be established forever; but a lying tongue is 
but for a moment." (Proverbs 12: 19.) 

In the prayer of Agur we have this petition, 
" Remove far from me vanity and lies." 

Legislation as to the Oath : A common swearer 
is a common perjurer; too much familiarity with a 
form of oath tends to a disregard of its sanctity; 
hence wise legislation will introduce very little affir- 
mation, if any, under 'affirmation by oath, but will 
notice the precept, " Let your communications be 
yea, yea; nay, nay ; " that is, a simple affirmation or 



192 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

denial without equivocation as to what you believe 
and know. 

The limitations of Jesus upon the use of the oath 
were made in the interest of veracity flowing from 
its true source in human nature — the love of truth ; 
and not of a veracity born of fear or self-interest. 
The very injunction not to forswear but to perform 
an oath argues and proves a tendency to a technical 
estimation of the solemn oath, and to disregard it 
under pretext of mental reservation or some other 
subterfuge deemed sufficient to counteract or turn 
aside its force. 

Hence the injunction, and the deeper philosophy, 
and the true ideal of Jesus, *' Sivear not at all" for 
to a man's word that loves truth for its own sake 
the oath adds nothing; and for him who is a liar by 
nature, and sees no beauty in truth, the oath has no 
binding force unless he be also superstitious and 
cowardly. 

But we do not want to educate men in this way ; 
and it is better, in seeking truth for the ends of jus- 
tice, to endeavor to assure the court of true testi- 
mony by inquiry into the character and reputation 
of the witness, as well as by close examination, than 
it is to foster a habit of trifling with things sacred. 
Youth -should be educated to say with the boy 
George Washington, " / cannot tell a lie." 

This is what Jesus aimed at ; he was enunciating 
principles and precepts for all time— such universal 
laws as tend to develop the true man. 

It is not necessary to say or to assume that Jesus 
expected his principles to be immediately adopted 



VERACITY. \%\ 



in their full extent ; that he would not, like Moses, 
allow anything for the perversity and hardness of 
men's hearts; and so must the court be allowed like 
latitude of prudence in the search for true testi- 
mony. Yet obedience to his precepts requires a 
constant endeavor to attain to the better way he 
points out. Herein is duty. 

The usual moralistic view of the oath is : That 
Jesus did not mean to forbid official oaths. 

Scripture narrative, indeed, and all history, shows 
that these oaths were common, as they now are and 
were spoken of without reprobation ; but this proves 
nothing as to a true theory or ideal relative to 
affirmation. 

The true ideal still is to so cultivate the moral 
sentiments and faculties, that a man will speak the 
truth and do his duty on his honor ; that is, because 
it is natural, constitutional and habitual for him so 
to do, and practically impossible for him to do 
otherwise. 

This is the meaning to be given to the affirmation 
of God, who, in condescension to the custom of 
men — their need for something formal, and so re- 
garded by them as more binding — swore by himself 
(" I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of 
my mouth in righteousness and shall not return ") ; 
that is, God swore by his own constitutional love for 
and adherence to truth, which act necessarily could 
add nothing at all to the certainty of God's truthful- 
ness, except that men, not well instructed in the 
perfections of Jehovah, and not capable of appre- 
ciating them, were more fully assured. But this is 

13 



]94 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

not the perfection and the liberty Jesus was incul- 
cating, nor that men should strive for. 

Honesty: It is a trite saying that "honesty is 
the best policy." This is true as one result of hon- 
esty ; it turns out to the ultimate advantage of him 
who practices it ; but if practiced for sake of this 
result, it is not pure honesty ; it has no virtue in it ; 
for pure honesty, there must be the love of it. 

Cicero makes three general heads on duty : (i) 
Honest or dishonest, (2) Profitable or unprofitable, 
(3) How, in case what seems honest is contra to what 
seems profitable? He arrives at the conclusion that 
" Honesty and profit are inseparable." 

There are two degrees of honesty: (1) Honesty 
in intention, (2) in both intention and fact ; or, we 
may say, honesty of purpose conjoined with wisdom 
in action. 

Deceit : To buy or to borrow without intention 
or reasonable expectation of paying or returning is 
to obtain goods on false pretenses and is base 
deceit. 

To sell a horse, ox, sheep, house, lands, goods, or 
anything that has a defect in quality or title con- 
cealed from the buyer, yet known to the owner, is 
of like character. 

To buy at prices lower than the real value, or to 
sell at higher than the real, on information, true or 
false, privately obtained in advance of public news, 
for purpose of taking advantage of somebody's ig- 
norance, knowing that the man you deal with will 
suffer by the transaction, is an act contra to good 
sound morals. 



VERACITY. 195 



To deceive an enemy by an appeal to the sympa- 
thies of the human soul only to entrap him into 
your power is a base act. In the siege of Troy, the 
deceit of the Greek in the wooden-horse affair 
(instar Montis equus) is an instance in point. On 
the other hand, Virgil rather justifies the proposal 
of the Trojan youth, Chorcebus, to his comrades to 
disguise themselves in the armor of the slain Greeks. 
This is his note of philosophy ; thus : 

Dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste requirat ! " 

—^Eneid, Lib. II, 390. 
Deceit or courage, who in an enemy inquires about it ! 

This fighting under false colors would ordinarily 
be unjustifiable and piratical ; but in this case the 
Trojans had been surprised by the impious fraud of 
the Greeks, and hence in self-defense they were jus- 
tified in the use of means otherwise questionable. 

The ethic-principle on which deceit is to be con- 
demned is that all deceit and lying is contra to 
man's social nature — hence is unnatural and abomi- 
nable, and is condemned by all law, human and 
divine. 

In the prosecution of war by hostile nations, 
some kinds of deceit are regarded as allowable ; 
other kinds as dishonorable and execrable. As to 
the first kind, it should be noticed that war itself is 
an abnormal condition of human nature, and 
while it lasts it is to be expected that there will be 
violations of good morals. 

Remark : Kant held that deceit is never allowa- 
ble, and his opinion is not to be lightly esteemed. 



106 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

This, too, is the opinion of those who say that de- 
ceit is not allowable even in self-defense, as when 
held up by a highwayman, or menaced by a burglar 
who demands your money or your life. If you de- 
ceive him, say these casuists, he will be tempted to 
take revenge on the next man he meets. The suffi- 
cient reply to this is, that the outlaw, in virtue of 
his antagonism to society, has no claim on you for 
veracity, and that he should not be allowed to have 
opportunity to meet another man ; but that it is the 
duty of government immediately to track him and 
hunt him down, and consign him to the' peniten- 
tiary or the gibbet. 

Principles and Practice, Robinson, page 224, has 
this foot-note : 

" Said one of the older citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, to the 
writer a few years ago, ' I never, in all m y life, was in so tight a 
place as when one of Quantrell's band in the great raid of 1863, 
with the muzzle of a cocked pistol close to my head, demanded 
to know if I was an abolitionist. The raiders were shooting 
down my neighbors all about me ; but the thought flashed 
through my mind, if I say No ! I shall ever afterwards be 
ashamed to look anyone in the face ; so I answered, Yes. An 
officer in command standing near, for some reason, I never knew 
what, shouted, " Don't shoot him ! ? " " 

It is probable this Kansas man did exactly the 
best thing, but not best for any reason he gives. In 
fact he did wrong, unless he had some ground of 
confidence in the moral sagacity of the man, or else 
of the officer standing by, to see^ incongruity and 
cowardice in the shooting of a man so brave for the 
truth. For sake of a mistaken sentiment, he had 



VERA CITT. 19; 



no right to risk his life by " casting pearls before 
swine." 

Experience proves that in very many instances 
moral considerations avail not with outlaws. The 
true course for a man in a strait of this sort is to 
quickly determine as best he can the chances in 
favor of truth or of deceit. Circumstances, and 
not solely sentiment, should enter into the decision. 
Must not this be the reasonable verdict notwith- 
standing contra authorities of a high order? 

Casuistry is the determination of cases of con- 
science. The conscience is imperfectly developed, 
specially so in children and in unenlightened grown 
persons. It is necessary for the parent and the 
teacher to instruct the child as to the right and 
wrong in its moral acts. " This is right, that is 
wrong — You should do, or should have done, this ; 
or the contra," — to act towards the child the part 
of a casuist. In this process of education, the child 
is gradually fitted to become its own casuist, by a 
habit of self-examination, and a careful study of the 
intention in its own thoughts and deeds as pure or 
impure, wise or unwise. 

This should be a leading object in moral and 
religious education — the attainment of individual 
knowledge and power to determine the right in 
one's own acts. 

The Jesuits, three hundred years ago, in the zenith 
of their power, had a monopoly of the office of the 
casuist. But the times of this ignorance and of 
swaddling-bands for the conscience has gone by 
under the enlightenment of moral science and 






19S MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Christian ethics interpreted by gospel soul-liberty, 
whereby the divinity within — the enlightened con- 
science — is each man's own best casuist ; not, how- 
ever, that any man has attained to perfection, or 
that anyone is too good for instruction or for re- 
proof ; and, too, confession of faults is good for "the 
soul ; " Confess your faults one to another, and pray 
one for another." 

For this there are appropriate times and seasons 
as the moral and spiritual condition of each re- 
quires. Let every man be fully persuaded in his 
own mind, and so use his liberty as they who must 
render an account thereof — without asserting inde- 
pendence of the opinions and advice of others, 
specially of those whose attainments and office fit 
them to instruct — and, too, without putting one's 
conscience into the keeping of any man, lest he 
abuse the trust, by a too easy admittance of such 
motives as this, " the end justifies the means; " and 
lest thereby the conscience become weak and cor- 
rupt, and self-reliance, individuality and personal 
liberty be lost, as it was among the Jesuits in their 
day, where the ruws of the order, right or wrong, 
must be implicitly obeyed ; yet by every proper 
means — by a scrupulous regard for truth and hon- 
esty, by confession to God and men — the conscience 
must be kept alive and active in its monitorial office, 
as the inner guardian of the right; for nothing 
should be so dreaded, or is so dangerous to the final 
peace of men, as a seared and dead conscience. 

The Ethic in Casuistry is, that with an enlight- 
ened sensitive conscience, cases of conscience admit 



REPUTATION. 199 



in general of ready solution ; that without this en- 
lightenment and sensibility no rule will have real 
value. 

62. Reputation. — "A good name is rather to be 
chosen than great riches." This maxim of the wise 
man is fully endorsed by experience. The true 
man, whatever his station and calling, values a good 
name more than any temporary advantage, for repu- 
tation once lost is very difficult to recover; and with- 
out it all other possessions are a mockery. 

The motives {or injuring another's reputation are 
varied ; sometimes from desire to avenge an insult, 
fancied or real; sometimes to get the advantage of 
a rival for popular favor, social or political ; often 
from mere thoughtlessness and love of talk and 
notoriety. 

These motives are all bad, and the acts they lead 
to are more or less criminal— the robbery of one's 
neighbor, so far as such means influence, of his most 
valuable possession. Fortunately sensible people 
pay little attention to idle tales, and the slanderer 
harms chiefly himself in reputation, and lays himself 
liable to severe punishment, if his victim should 
think it necessary to resort to the law for redress. 

There is, too, a peculiar meanness in talking about, 
perhaps gloating over, the faults of others, when it 
does no good, when there is no good end in view — 
especially over faults long ago committed — slips 
made -partly from inexperience and lack of proper 
moral training, and a wise perception of moral rela- 
tions — rights, duties and obligations — rather than 



200 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

from an evil disposition — the love and desire for 
wrong-doing. 

The person maligned for these sins may long 
since have repented of them, and be standing to- 
day on a much higher plane of morality, in thought, 
soul and act, than his would-be traducer. 



division iv. institutions. 

63. Institutions, as to Origin and Charac- 
ter. — Their name is legion, from the institutions of 
nature and those logically derived therefrom, to the 
minor artificial organizations devised and estab- 
lished by man for various purposes, such as the an- 
cient institution of Free Masons; of Chivalry; or 
the more modern ones of the Knights of Pythias; 
the Knights of Labor, or in general labor unions ; 
the board of trade and a hundred others. 

Patriarchal, tribal and national forms of govern- 
ment are not instances of the artificial ; but rather 
of institutions either natural or logical. 

Chief are the institutions of marriage and of the 
Sabbath, introduced by Divine appointment at the 
close of the creation. The discussion of these will be 
found each under its own head. 

Institutions, as to Their Character: Institutions 
such as the church, the public school, the temper- 
ance society, the Order of Free Masons, Odd Fel- 
lows, and many other organizations, may have in 
themselves moral tendencies; but moral obligation 
and duty are in the individuals that belong to and 



INSTITUTIONS; ORIGIN, CHARACTER. 201 



support the institution ; and each individual member 
of an institution is morally responsible just in accord 
with the moral tendency of the institution he helps 
to maintain. 

In general, institutions are moral or immoral just 
as they are or are not organized on principles of 
sound morality. Thus marriage and the Sabbath, in 
their civil aspect, are moral so far as the require- 
ments of the law and custom are in accord with the 
laws of nature. 

Mormon marriage is not moral, because it violates 
the law of nature. So the church, as an institution, 
is moral as well as religious, because the design of it 
is the public worship of the true God, in accord 
with the first commandment of the moral law, as 
well as with the inculcation of the entire decalogue 
and of the moral precepts that abound in the teach- 
ing of Jesus. If, however, a church teaches and 
practices the persecution of those it calls heretics, 
the individual members of that church are violators 
of the sixth commandment, " Thou shalt not kill ; " 
and they must be classed and punished as persecu- 
tors and murderers, unless they protest and act 
against the crime, and manifest a readiness to sacri- 
fice themselves, if need be, in the expulsion from 
their institution of the immoral doctrine, and the 
immoral utterers of it. Their reward for manly ac- 
tion would surely follow — the blessedness in the 
eighth beatitude, " Blessed are they which are perse- 
cuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven." 

Members of temperance and of benevolent societies 



202 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

are as individuals morally responsible for the moral 
tendency of those societies which may be good or 
bad just in accord with the wisdom or foolishness of 
their organization and management. 

So, if the " board of trade " departs from its 
proper function as a guardian, conservator and pro- 
moter of the business affairs and interests of their 
city and community, and from legitimate trade, 
which is designed to be, and which generally is, bene- 
ficial to all parties engaged in it, and if it indulges 
in mere speculative, unreal transactions — its individ- 
ual members buying and selling fictitious merchan- 
dise — wherein one man must lose what another 
gains — it is mere gambling, a vice and sin that is for- 
bidden by the tenth commandment ; which sin each 
and every member of a board of trade so constituted 
is guilty of, and for which he is morally responsible. 

And so it is as to the responsibility of each citi- 
zen in the matter of licensing the saloon, and in 
compromising with the gambling dens and others of 
ill repute. 

The theatre is an institution for the healthy 
amusement and improvement of the people, but 
may be for their corruption ; unfortunately the ten- 
dency is largely in this latter direction. Theatre- 
goers and the negligent guardian of morals cannot 
escape responsibility. 

The public school, as an institution being directly 
intellecual and moral, and indirectly religious and 
political, can be classified as educational, because the 
idea of education runs through all its objects ; 
namely, the development of the intellect in a com- 



THE IDEA IN INSTITUTIONS. 203 

petent knowledge of literature and science, and 
specially the cultivation of the moral and religious 
sentiments, and so it does not perform its proper 
function as an educator of youth when merely the 
intellect is cultivated ; for education consists in 
drawing out all the good native faculties of the soul; 
and this is the province of the public school, so far 
as it is practicable through its instrumentality. 

To say, then, that the public school should not 
and cannot educate in the science of morals, includ- 
ing its relation to religion, is to occupy an untena- 
ble and immoral standpoint in the all-important 
matter of education, and it becomes each citizen to 
see how far his own responsibility in the matter 
extends. 

64. The Idea in Institutions.— The general 
idea of an institution is well shown in Lieber's "Civil 
Liberty," and we make quotation thus : 

"An institution is a system or body of usages, laws 
or regulations of extensive and recurring operation, 
containing within itself an organism by which it 
effects its own independent action, continuance, and 
generally its own further development. Its object 
is to generate, effect, regulate or sanction a succes- 
sion of acts, transactions or productions of a peculiar 
kind or class. 

" The idea of an institution implies a degree of 
self-government. Laws act through human agents, 
and these are, in the case of institutions, their officers 
or members. 

" We are likewise in the habit of calling single laws 



204 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

or usages (which are laws of spontaneous growth) 
institutions, if their operation is of vital importance 
and vast scope, and if their continuance is in a high 
degree independent of any interfering power. 

"Thus we call marriage an institution in considera- 
tion of its pervading importance, its extensive 
operation, the innumerable relations it affects, and 
the security which its continuance enjoys in the 
conviction of almost all men, against any attempts at 
its abolition. 

" Indeed we generally mean by the institution of 
marriage pretty much the institution of the family ; 
that is, the family as a community sanctioned and 
fortified by the law, by authoritative usages, and by 
religion — the cluster of laws and usages, social, polit- 
ical and religious, which relate to this well defined 
community." 

It always forms a prominent element in the idea 
of an institution, whether the term be taken in the 
strictest sense or not, that it is a group of laws, 
usages and operations standing in close relation to 
one another, and forming an independent whole, 
with a united and distinguishing character of its own. 

"The school," that is to say, "the whole school 
system, as well as the modern national army in 
Prussia, have been called institutions, when it was 
desired to express the idea that they are establish- 
ments of vast importance, and that they enjoy a 
supposed degree of independent vitality." 

Dr. Thos. Arnold, by "the institution," understands 
such officers, orders of men, public bodies, settle- 
ments of property, customs or regulations, concern- 



INSTITUTIONS; NATURAL, LOGICAL. 205 



ing matters of general usage, as do not owe their 
existence to any express law or laws; but having 
originated in various ways, at a period of remote 
antiquity,* are already parts of the national system, 
at the very beginning of pur historical view of it, 
and are recognized by all actual laws as being them- 
selves a kind of primary condition on which all 
recorded legislation proceeds. 

Dr. Lieber criticizes this view of Arnold's as re- 
stricting the meaning of institution to institutions of 
growth, and as not including those arising from 
enactments of law. Further, "nor is it accurate to 
call certain officers, or orders of men, institutions — 
they are but temporary members of the perpetual 
institution." 

However, the " officers or orders of men" may by 
Dr. Arnold be regarded as merely representing the 
principles of the institution ; and so by them the 
institution is personified as to its principles. Hence 
the second part of the criticism has little force, whilst 
the first part holds, provided Dr. Arnold really in- 
tended to rule out a legal origin for an institution. 

65. Institutions, Natural, Logical, Arti- 
ficial — The Conjugal Relation, Natural. — Marriage 
merging into the family, with its several offices 
and duties of mutual respect, love and affection ; of 
cares; home amusements; joys ; happiness, and do- 
mestic bliss, with its industries, frugalities, trials 
and discipline, is a natural institution, because it 
necessarily arises from the constitution of human 
nature. 



206 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

The Sabbath Natural, Logical. — The Sabbath, 
arising primarily from need of rest after six days of 
work, is so far a natural institution. The other 
features of the institution, as of a time for contem- 
plation of the universe, and of one's relations to the 
Creator and to man, with the ennobling thoughts 
and feelings of joy and delight, that should and 
would result under normal conditions, are logical. 
They arise from a natural procedure of thought and 
reasoning, from the idea of what kind of thoughts, 
feelings and acts should naturally accompany a 
season of hallowed rest. 

The State Natural, Logical, Artificial. — The State 
is a natural institution as to its leading feature, gov- 
ernment. Order is nature's first law, and there must 
be order among men as a people or nation ; and there 
cannot be, without subordination to law formulated 
in institutional government, be it autocratic or 
democratic. 

That is, from a natural desire for good society and 
good government men come together to organize 
themselves into a state, a government for the people ; 
unless this organization has naturally been effected 
for them by a general acquiescence in the rule of a 
leader, be he called chief, king or sovereign. 

Thus far the state formation is natural. 

But now if subinstitutions are devised, and are 
carried into effect to secure to the state a firm foun- 
dation, and a due regard for right and justice, these 
subinstitutions are the logical outcome of the original 
natural predisposition in humanity to the state 
organization. 



INSTITUTIONS; LOGICAL, ARTIFICIAL. 207 

Thus the subordinate and constituent institutions 
of the state, the legislature, the judiciary, the exec- 
utive, as branches, are severally in themselves logical 
institutions. 

State laws and institutions are artificial, when 
they do not naturally nor logically flow from the 
proper idea of a state. 

Thus in ■ England, Spain, Russia, Germany, 
Austria, and in most civilized lands, there exists a 
union of church and state. This union means that 
the power and influence of the religious sentiment 
centered in a church organization is united and 
consolidated with the natural and logical con- 
stituents of the state so as to become a part of state 
government, or one of the powers of the realm. 
Thus in England there arose, perhaps artificially, a 
division of interests. Some men, comparatively few, 
became possessors and owners of land. Others were 
engaged in manufacturing and in mercantile pur- 
suits: hence two classes of citizens, with distinct in- 
terests, logically became resolved into two estates of 
the realm or kingdom ; the lords of the lands rep- 
resenting what is justly regarded as the permanent 
interest, and the manufacturing and mercantile as 
rather the progressive interest. 

Now naturally and logically there is somewhere a 
third interest or estate, to hold in even balance or 
equilibrium the entire action of governmental 
power. 

This third estate or power should naturally be 
sought for and found in the wisdom and influence of 
the wise and the good. Not long ago the clergy rep- 



208 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

resented the most of the learning of the people ; 
hence, in the higher dignitaries of the church, in the 
bishops, archbishops, was vested the third estate ; 
and from their profession and official character as 
religionists and rulers in the church, it was illogically 
inferred that the peculiar doctrines of their creed con- 
stituted the learning and wisdom that the third estate 
stands for — was intended to represent. 

Thus in lieu of a natural and logical third estate, 
grounded in literature and science ; in the moral and 
religious sentiments ; in the wisdom of mankind, and 
in the necessary, catholic and universally admitted 
doctrines and precepts of scripture revelation, we find 
an artificial third estate set up, the credo of whatever 
sect or branch of the Christian church might, for the 
time being, chance to be in the ascendency, or hold 
the preeminence. 

For instance, England's Henry VIII was entitled 
by the Pope " Defender of the Faith ;" then by act 
of parliament, under pressure of the king's own will, 
he was styled "Head of the English Church." 

Religion had nothing at all to do with this shift- 
ing attitude of Henry VIII, in the formal profession 
of it. It was entirely due to the fancied self-interest, 
caprice and unholy passion of a man void of spirit- 
uality, and whose way of life rendered him incapable 
of it. 

Whatever religious opinions Henry for the time 
being might think it politic to adopt, these he sought 
to enforce upon his subjects. Under his reign is 
well illustrated the artificial character of the church 
as a national institution. 



INSTITUTIONS; LOGICAL, ARTIFICIAL. 209 

The futile endeavor of the unfortunate Charles I, 
of England, and of his son, James II, to impose 
their own religious opinions upon the people and the 
national character, and the miserable results in the 
turbulent times of the Commonwealth, affords an- 
other conspicuous instance of the folly of attempt- 
ing to enforce relations that do not exist in nature ; 
that is, to commingle ecclesiastical rule and state 
government. 

Education Natural : Man, by nature, seeks truth, 
not only from a single desire for knowledge, but also 
on account of the sympathetic and social feelings 
natural to man, and his endowment with intellectual 
faculties, and the gift of speech and song, there is 
specially in youth, generally in man, a tendency to 
congregate for discussion for mutual improvement in 
arts, social, civil and martial. 

So far as this is prompted by a natural desire for 
interchange of thought, and a love of truth, educa- 
tion has a natural origin, and educational institu- 
tions may properly be called natural institutions. 

The Public School Natural, Logical : The public 
school, then, for instruction in what pertains to the 
formation of enlightened, patriotic and good citi- 
zens, is rooted and grounded in the nature of man, 
and thus there is valid authority for the public 
school as possessing a highly ethic character, from 
the moral aspects and relations that necessarily per- 
tain to it, as an institution — as a means for educat- 
ing the people, for individual and for public ends. 

The ground for its existence is not in a mere mat- 
ter of opinion, but is in man's nature, and the fea- 

14 



210 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

tures and provisions of the public school institution 
should be logical, the necessary product of the right 
use of reason in adapting educational methods and 
appliances to the proper ends of the public school, 
in accord with the true idea of it. 

66. The Sabbath. — Every law of the moral code 
is of the highest value to the well being of man ; 
and the law of the Sabbath, or day of rest, is not to 
be at all slighted. Yet partly from the perversity of 
human nature, and partly from some little difficulty 
in comprehending the scope of the law, and the 
need of study to discern its right application, men 
are ready to hold Sabbath-day observance in light es- 
teem, and to interpret its requirements with much 
latitude. 

The experience of man has shown that a period- 
ical cessation of bodily and mental toil is necessary 
to the maintenance of health, that the physical con- 
stitution, when subjected to the strain of regular 
work, will be impaired, and sooner or later will 
break down, unless relieved by regular intervals of 
rest, recreation or change to employments that call 
into activity other faculties. 

In 1832, the English parliament' instituted sys- 
tematic and extensive inquiries, and from the testi- 
mony of medical men, and other scientists, as well 
as of those in industrial pursuits, it was shown that 
in an economic point of view as to health and good 
work, a sabbatical day of rest is needed. Indeed, 
the experience of every man who has noted the re- 
sults proves it. 



THE SABBATH. 211 



More recently, in Germany, the subject has been 
much discussed — not so much on religious grounds — 
as on the ground of overwork for the body. 

In 1872 the government was petitioned to protect, 
by enactment of law, workingmen against employ- 
ers who required them to work on Sunday, and a 
commission was appointed to inquire into the best 
mode of effecting such protection — there being no 
question on the part of either the government or of 
the people as to the desirability of the Sabbath-day's 
rest. But the problem was how to obtain it without 
interfering with industrial pursuits necessary to 
meet the wants of the needy people ; and here it 
might well be inquired whether it is necessary and 
right that conditions of life should obtain — such con- 
ditions as do prevent a due observance of the Sab- 
bath. 

But the authoritative law for a " day of rest" we 
find in Holy Writ, in the Bible narrative of Creation. 
Thus, after reciting that in six days " the heavens 
and the earth were finished and all the host of them," 
Genesis 2 : 2, 3, reads : "And on the seventh day God 
ended his work which he had made ; and he rested 
on the seventh day from all his work which he had 
made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanc- 
tified it, because that in it he had rested from all his 
work which God created and made." 

Here we have the institution of the Sabbath, or 
the day of rest, which day is blessed from the good 
effects resulting to man on account of its institu- 
tion ; and is hallowed or made holy because the rest 
gives man an opportunity to contemplate with 



212 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

proper feelings of admiration and veneration the 
completed works of God, and his own relation to the 
great Creator. 

God himself, at the close of his six days' work, 
pronounced his own work good, doubtless with a Di- 
vine sentient feeling of pure pleasure, admiration 
and joy over the beauty and grandeur of his own 
designs. 

In reason, then, the Creator should rest after a 
given series of toil — to look back upon his work and 
to see that it was good, and to consecrate its com- 
pletion by a day of rest — of hallowed rest — time 
restful not only to the body, but to the soul of 
man, in contemplation of those starry heavens 
that " declare the glory of God," and of that last 
day's work — man, in w r hose soul-constitution are 
" the unwritten laws" of God, as if written and 
graven with his own finger on tablets of imperish- 
able stone. 

" How still the morning of the hallow'd dav ! 
Mute is the voice of rural labor ; hush'd 
The ploughboj's whistle and the milkmaid's song. 
The scythe lies glittering in the dewy wreath 
Of tedded grass, mingled with faded flowers 
That yester-morn bloomed waving in the breeze. 
Sounds the most faint attract the ear — the hum 
Of early bee, the trickling of the dew, 
The distant bleating midway up the hill. 
Calmness seems throned on yon unmoving cloud. 

With dove-like wings, Peace o'er yon village broods, 
The dizzying mill-wheel rests ; the anvil's din 
Hath ceased ; all, all around is quietness. 
Less fearful on this day the limping hare 



REASONS FOR A SABBATH-DAT. 213 

Stops and looks back, and stops and looks on .man, 

Her deadliest foe. The toil-worn horse set free, • 

Unheedful of the pasture, roams at large, 

And as his stiff, unwieldy bulk he rolls. 

His iron- armed hoofs gleam in the morning ray. 

But chiefly man the day of rest enjoys, 
Hail Sabbath ! thee I hail, the poor man's day ! 
On other days the man of toil is doomed 
To eat his joyless bread lonely, the ground 
Both seat and board screened from the winter's cold 
And summer';? heat by neighboring hedge or tree ; 
But on this day, embosom'd in his home. 
He shares the frugal meal with those he loves ; 
With those he loves, he shares the heartfelt joy 
Of giving thanks to God — not thanks of form, 
A word and a grimace, but reverently, 
With covered face and upward earnest eye, 
Hail Sabbath ! thee I hail, the poor man's day ! " 

Grahame's Sabbath Morn. 

6y. Origin— Reasons for a Sabbath-day In- 
stitution. — The reasons given for the institution 
and observance of the Sabbath may be formally 
stated thus : 

God rested — We are enjoined to do likewise; 

God blessed — The observance of the day is accom- 
panied with blessings to man ; 

God sanctified — Set apart from common to sacred 
use. 

In the first ages of man's era, doubtless the Sab- 
bath as thus ordained, as a universal law, was ob- 
served by all the peoples of the earth ; and under 
Divine authority was known and regarded, till men, 
following their own evil imaginations, began to for- 
get God. 



214 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Even the Israelites, the chosen people, had be- 
come very lax as to the Sabbath ; hence the need of 
a stringent law to enforce it ; hence the first word of 
the fourth commandment, "Remember" — " Re- 
member the Sabbath day to keep it holy" — points 
to something before known, and which now must 
not be forgotten. 

The formal institution of the Jewish Sabbath was 
prior to the law of the Sabbath in the fourth com- 
mandment. It was upon the occasion of the dou- 
ble supply of manna on the sixth day. " On the 
sixth day they gathered twice as much bread ; two 
omers for one man. * * * This is that which 
the Lord hath said : To-morrow is the rest of the 
holy Sabbath unto the Lord. * * * To-day is 
a Sabbath unto the Lord ; to-day ye shall not find it 
in the field. Six days ye shall gather it, but on the 
seventh day, the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." 
(Exodus 16: 22-26.) 

There is no intimation that the manna began to 
appear on the first day of a week whose seventh day 
was then kept as the Sabbath ; but the double por- 
tion of manna on the sixth day of its appearance 
fixed the next day as the day which now must be 
strictly observed as the Sabbath. This relative time, 
the seventh day, instead of an absolute time once 
for all determined by a sharply defined yet unnat- 
ural close of the sixth day of Creation, saves the 
day from a superstitious observance as to time ; and 
preserves it in its original integrity and virtue as a 
day of rest, and of sacred duties to be done. 

By misinterpretation of the seventh day, as a cer- 



TIME OF REST. 215 



tain absolute time, instead of a seventh part of time 
set apart for peculiar duties, the Sabbath institution 
had been vitiated. It had become formal rather 
than useful and practical, as designed originally, and 
as expressed in the fourth commandment ; for as 
we read, " The Sabbath was made for man." 

68. Time of Rest. — The time of rest, as deter- 
mined by the Creator, is one day in seven ; and this 
being Divine wisdom, no people can assume to make 
a better distribution of time, as to employments sec- 
ular and sacred. 

In the day of the French revolution, when things 
sacred were trampled upon, the tenth day was sub- 
stituted as a day of rest instead of the seventh day ; 
but experience soon proved that a tenth part of time 
was insufficient for the end desired. Nor is the time 
to be determined by each individual for himself. 
The law of the Sabbath is a law given to the people 
at large, to the nation — and must be maintained by 
the people as a civil institution, as well as a moral 
one. 

The Sabbath " made for man " applies not only to 
man individually, but to man as a community, and 
hence must enter into the civil code. 

Government national and municipal is under obli- 
gation to notice the Sabbath — not only by obedience 
to its requirements, but by such laws and regulations 
as will secure a due regard on the part of the people 
to a proper respect for the Sabbath day. 

Among a comparatively homogeneous people 
there need be no difference in this regard. The 



216 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

rights of conscience are readily respected when it is 
understood that no man has a right to a conscience 
that will without compunction invade the rights of 
his neighbor. 

The essential element of the Sabbath day is the 
one day's rest after six days of labor. 

If the six days of labor be determined by legisla- 
tion in accord with the known will of the people, the 
one day of rest will follow in accord with the law of 
nature as set forth in the Creation. 

Or if the one day of rest be determined in accord 
with the religious views of the people, then the six 
days of work will naturally follow. 

In an exceptional case, it may occur, as in Algiers, 
that there is a marked observance of more than one 
day as the Sabbath day. 

Thus the French government and French people 
in Algeria observe Sunday as the Sabbath day. 

The Jews observe Saturday, and the Mahomedan 
Arabs observe Friday as the Sabbath. 

Here, properly, the conscience, however unenlight- 
ened, is respected ; and each people is left free — 
perforce and under restrictions of due legislation — 
to observe a Sabbath day, according to its own views 
as to time. 

The particular application of the universal law of 
rest will vary with varying environments. 

As to the Israelites, they were a chosen people set 
for a light in the world, to maintain, by a ready 
obedience to moral law, the knowledge and the wor- 
ship of the one true God amid the darkness of the 
idolatrous Gentile nations. 



TRUE OBSERVANCE. 217 

And this chosen people was itself a stubborn, 
stiff-necked race, that could not be kept within 
the bounds of obedience except by exact and 
strict laws and with severe penalties for violation 
thereof. 

Hence special Sabbath laws we have — " Six days 
thou shalt work ; but on the seventh day thou shalt 
rest ; in earing time and in harvest time thou shalt 
rest." (Exodus 34: 21.) " Six days shall work be 
done ; but on the seventh day there shall be to you 
an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Who- 
soever doeth work therein shall be put to death." 
(Exodus 35 : 2.) "Ye shall kindle no fire through- 
out your habitations on the Sabbath day." (Exo- 
dus 35: 3.) 

69. True Observance. — But after that a habit 
of obedience and of Sabbath observance had been at- 
tained to, through exacting laws, the next step in the 
education of the people was to change the spirit of 
this obedience from its compulsory and formal 
character to a voluntary and a joyful obedience aris- 
ing from a more enlightened view of the require- 
ments of the Sabbath, and a true appreciation of the 
blessings the Sabbath institution is capable of con- 
ferring upon man, when the moral and religious 
nature of man has become so enlarged and cultivated 
as to be able to go alone — to dispense with the lead- 
ing-strings of positive law and special rules, and to 
enter into, receive, sustain and enjoy a condition of 
moral freedom in the interpretation and observance 
of an institution like the Sabbath, into which enter 



218 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

varied considerations of physical, intellectual, moral 
and religious well being. 

A chief object in the mission of that illustrious 
prophet Isaiah was to infuse a spiritual element into 
the ceremonial, formal and superstitious character of 
Jewish worship. Hence his sharp rebuke : "To 
what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto 
me ?" saith the Lord. " Bring no more vain oblations ; 
incense is an abomination unto me ; the new moons 
and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies ; even the 
solemn meeting." 

" Wash ye, make you clean ; put away the evil of 
your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil." 
(Isaiah I : n.) 

To this end, in the matter of Sabbath observance, 
Isaiah prophecies thus : 

" If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, 
from doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call 
the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honor- 
able ; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own 
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking 
thine own words: 

"Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and 
I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the 
earth and feed thee with the heritage- of Jacob thy 
father ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 
(Isaiah 58: 13, 14.) 

70. The True Sabbath. — Thus the true Sabbath, 
instead of being a time for lugubrious meditation, is 
an occasion of delight to the soul of man, when the 
soul is drawn towards proper objects of love. 



THE TRUE SABBATH. 219 

And in this view of progression towards higher 
and truer views of moral and religious duties, a 
more flexible interpretation to the Sabbath-day law 
became possible in the times and under the ministry 
of the Lord Jesus, who showed that works of ne- 
cessity and of mercy might be done on that holy 
day. 

Thus to the blind, sight was given ; and to the 
sick of the palsy he saith : "Arise, take up thy bed, 
and go unto thy house." 

The former rigidity of interpretation as to Sab- 
bath-day work was under a reign of law, which, if a 
man do, he lives ; if not, he dies. 

The later elasticity of interpretation was under a 
reign of law indeed, but of law modified by the 
Spirit's power, which places man in a higher plane 
of action ; one in which the enlightened conscience 
finds an element of freedom. 

We must not, however, for a moment imagine the 
abrogation of the Sabbath law ; Jesus came not to 
annul but to fulfill." 

The law exists, and the element of elasticity in- 
fused into it by changed conditions must not be con- 
strued into one of unrestricted license. 

Every man is bound to observe the law with a 
very conscientious regard to its duties and require- 
ments. 

There are many scripture passages showing obli- 
gation to keep the Sabbath day holy. " Blessed is 
the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it." 
(Isaiah 56 : 2.) 

" If ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, 



220 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

to bring in no burden through the gates of this city 
on the Sabbath day ; then shall there enter into the 
gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the 
throne of David. But if ye will not hearken unto 
me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a 
burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem 
on the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the 
gates thereof ; and it shall devour the palaces of 
Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." (Jeremiah 
17 : 24-27.) 

These solemn warnings are entirely applicable to 
our degenerate day, which would turn over the in- 
stitution of the Sabbath day as a day sacred to rest 
from daily toil, and sacred to heavenly thought and 
contemplation, into a day for the active and ener- 
getic pursuit of business, or of amusement and 
pleasure. 

God rested on the seventh day. The Sabbath is 
primarily rest from toil. This rest the toiler needs, 
whether it be rest from bodily or from mental toil. 

The labors of the six days of the week are 
lightened and mitigated by the thought that one 
day of rest is near at hand. How blithely the 
wearied traveler journeys over the road as he nears 
the last day, the last hour, the last milestone that 
separates from home. 

The growing disregard of the day of rest by our 
business men is doubtless in large part the reason 
why so many of them break down and die before 
their time. 

"Business, business — it is a dreadful thing!" ex- 
claimed little Miss Winterbotham, as she saw her 



SABBATH-DAT INSTITUTIONS. 221 

papa — always " on the go" — called away from home 
at an unseasonable hour. And so it is a dreadful 
thing when pursued in defiance of the Sabbath rest, 
and of all the warnings and threatenings of Holy 
Writ, which sooner or later will be executed to the 
extent and fullness of their language and meaning. 

But not solely a day of rest, for it is " the Sabbath 
of the Lord thy God," and hence has some special 
relation to him. The Lord blessed the Sabbath day 
and hallowed it. 

This means that while it is a day of rest, it is also 
a day, a suitable time for spiritual exercises ; for 
thoughts about God, communion with him, prayer 
and praise ; and every man, and all people are more 
profited by the right use than by the abuse of the 
Sabbath. 

71. Summary as to Sabbath-day Institu- 
tions. — On a general survey and review of the 
Sabbath-day institutions, the conclusion must be 
that there is one Sabbath— the seventh day set apart 
at the Creation by constitutional law as a day of 
rest sanctified to holy use ; that the fourth com- 
mandment is a reminder of what ought and what 
ought not to be done, and goes to show that the 
proper observance of the Sabbath had fallen into 
neglect. 

Hence the positive and particular requirements 
and the severe penalties for violation, all necessary 
to drill Israel, the chosen people, into a habit of 
obedience. True, obedience from higher motives 
from a pure desire to do right is the kind of obedi- 



222 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

ence to be aimed at, but it is often necessary to put 
perverse humanity through a course of rough dis- 
cipline to educate up to this high plane of duty. 

As to time, the important point is that it be one 
day in seven ; the seventh after six days of ordinary 
work. 

There is no evidence that the manna began to 
fall on the first day of a prior series of work-days. 
Doubtless the original Sabbath day had been lost 
sight of, and the Creator made use of this necessary 
interposition to save the people from famine, to 
again institute a series of days, and to mark the Sab- 
bath day by a double supply of food on the sixth 
day, and by withholding any supply on the seventh. 

This visible and miraculous supply for six days, 
and the omission of it on the seventh, incidentally 
introduced again, and emphasized and enforced the 
Sabbath-day institution. So, too, the immediate 
disciples of Jesus, confirmed and established in their 
faith by his resurrection from the grave on the first 
day of the week, and by the outpouring of the 
Spirit and the gift of tongues also on the first day, 
naturally regarded the first day as the day to be ob- 
served as holy, sacred to religious uses, and so they 
had their assemblies for worship on the first day in- 
stead of the seventh ; and thus they instituted a 
new week-series. 

The completed six days' work of creation marked 
the income of the sabbatical era ; so the double 
portion of manna on the sixth day marked the same 
thing. 

So, too, the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus — 



,S\ I BBA TH-DA V INSTITUTIONS. 223 



his advent on a mission of love and mercy, his in- 
structions, his good deeds, his temptations cast aside, 
his cross and passion, his descent into the grave, 
were all proved, rounded and completed by his res- 
urrection and the presence of the Spirit as the in- 
come of a more glorious Sabbath ; warranting, we 
may say, the disciples in marking the day on which 
these great events took place as a new sabbatical 
era — the old having served its purpose. Yet man's 
wisdom has no sufficient warrant for this change, ex- 
cept on the ground of a Divine oversight and provi- 
dential care in the Father of all as to the institutions 
of his children. 

Without presuming to .scan Divine reasons for 
these changes, it doubtless is a fact of human nature, 
as illustrated in the Jew, that the continued observ- 
ance of one unvaried day tends to superstition and 
to a formal obedience as to a certain time, rather than 
to a true holy keeping of it — just as when the place 
of worship is magnified to the damage and loss of a 
true worship; as Jesus taught thus: "The hour 
cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor 
yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. God is a 
Spirit ; and they that worship him must worship him 
in spirit and in truth." (John 4 : 21-24.) 

So in like manner, a spiritual observance of the 
Sabbath is promoted and attained to when the 
thoughts are drawn away from an absolute time to 
a sabbatical commemoration of eventful eras — 
namely, to the Creation, to the providential care of 
the Father over his chosen people, and to the re- 
demption and spirit-regeneration of man. 



224 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

72. Legislation Sabbatical. — Much might be 
said on what legislation is necessary to discourage 
Sabbath-day breaking, now so common by institu- 
tions and organizations for catering to the lovers of 
pleasure, by business men in the prosecution of large 
industries, by railroad corporations, and by the 
government itself in its postal and other service. 
Doubtless there is a temperate conservative con- 
struction to be put on these matters, "and others 
akin to them, which will be perceived and en- 
forced when the people are so educated as to 
have a right knowledge and appreciation of the Sab- 
bath day. 

An editorial in " Christian Union," May 9th, 1889, 
indicates a growing sentiment of regard for the 
Sabbath : 

; ' The New York Central Railroad, which had already reduced 
its traffic on Sunday to a minimum, has now, by order which 
went into effect on the first of May, reduced its freight traffic on 
Sunday about fifty per cent. The difficulties in the way of this 
movement, and the methods by which they are met. we have 
already indicated to our readers. 

" It is now announced that the Erie Railroad and the Dela- 
ware & Hudson Canal Company have adopted the same policy, 
and will reduce to the minimum the running of all trains and 
railroad work on Sunday. General Diven showed in our col- 
umns last winter that such a reduction of raih^oad traffic is prac- 
ticable, and these roads by their action are demonstrating that 
to this problem, as to the others, the aphorism 'Where there's a 
will there's a way' applies. It is said that the workingmen on 
the roads are generally glad to get the rest day, although it 
necessarily involves some diminution in wages. 

" The thanks of the religious comjnunity are especially due to 
Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose persistent urgency in this mat- 
ter has at length borne fruit." 



thoughts bt bishop whatelt. 225 

73. Thoughts on the Sabbath by Bishop 
WlIATELY. — Bishop Whately entirely misconstrues 
the scope of the Jewish Sabbath, and misleads us 
when he would make it a mere positive law, and 
thus abstract it from the decalogue. It is no posi- 
tive law, the seventh day for rest. It is a law of the 
physical nature, and for religious thought and the 
exercise of the religious feelings. It is a law of the 
soul. After six days of toil, bodily rest naturally 
comes first ; it must first be had, else the soul is in 
no fit condition for spiritual exercise. 

The bishop lays stress on the " power of the 
church" and its "sanction" of the first day of the 
week as the Sabbath, but from scripture it does not 
appear that any power of the church was used, but 
that on, the evening of the day of the resurrection 
the disciples, in view of this momentous event, 
naturally assembled together, and that Jesus ap- 
peared in their midst, thus sanctioning their act of 
assembling ; also that on the next first day of the 
week a similar meeting took place. 

Very pertinent and judicious is the note of Albert 
Barnes on John 20 : 26 : 

" From this it appears that they thus early set apart this day 
for assembling together, and Jesus countenanced it by appearing 
twice with them. It was natural that the apostles should ob- 
serve this day, but not probable that they would do it without 
the sanction of the Lord Jesus. His repeated presence gave 
such a sanction, and the historical fact is indisputable that from 
this time this day was observed as the Christian Sabbath. 

Hence it further appears that the first-day Sab- 
bath, in lieu of the Jewish seventh-day, far from 

15 



226 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

being instituted by the " power of the church," in- 
stituted itself spontaneously, under the guidance of 
the providential hand, and with the sanction of the 
Great Head of the Church — in virtue of a natural 
logic of a course of supernatural events of the high- 
est interest to man. 

74. Marriage. — 

" Tell me, on what holy ground 
May Domestic Peace be found ? 
Halcyon daughter of the skies, 
Far on fearful wing she flies, 
From the pomp of sceptred state, 
From the rebel's noisy hate ; 
In a cottaged vale she dwells, 
Listening to the Sabbath bells! 
Still around her steps are seen 
Spotless Honor's meeker mien, 
Love, the sire of pleasing fears, 
Sorrow smiling through her tears, 
And, conscious of the past employ, 
Memory, bosom-spring of joy!" 

— Coleridge. 

The authority for the marriage institution is " male 
and female created he them," and God blessed them 
and God said unto them, " Be fruitful and multiply 
and replenish the earth." (Genesis 1 : 27, 28.) 

And the sacredness of marriage is enforced by 
" What therefore God hath joined together, let no 
man put asunder." (Matthew 19: 6.) 

And the holy love that should exist in wedlock 
is set forth thus : " Husbands, love your wives, even 
as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for 
it : that it should be holy and without blemish." 



MARRIAGE. 227 



" So ought men to love their wives as their own 
bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself; for 
no man ever yet hated his own flesh." (Ephesians 
5 : 2 5> 33-) Marriage is honorable in all. (Hebrews 
13: 4.) "And both Jesus was called, and his disci- 
ples, to the marriage." (John 2 : 2.) 

The Conjugal Law: The general equality in 
numbers between males and females proves that the 
Creator designed one man for one woman ; and that 
the union of the two must be sacred and inviolable is 
evidenced from the degradation and miseries, physical 
and moral, that are sure to accompany its violation. 
Hence the many scripture precepts in favor of mar- 
riage as the natural, lawful and honorable condition 
of life ; and against all acts that are destructive of its 
beauty and utility and necessity in the continuance, 
preservation, cultivation and happiness of the human 
race. Among the blessings of marriage are indi- 
vidual happiness, numerous and well cared for chil- 
dren, peace in society, and good government from 
the increased interest of citizens under family rela- 
tion, in the well-being of the state. 

Hence to meet the requirements of the conjugal 
law, it follows that the marriage relation must be 
life-long in duration. 

This Jesus taught : " The Pharisees also came unto 
him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful 
for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 

"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye 
not read that he which made them at the beginning, 
made them male and female, and said, For this 
cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall 



228 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one 
flesh. 

" Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. 
What therefore God hath joined together, let not 
man put asunder." (Matthew 19: 3, 6.) 

Permanent and exclusive union is, then, an essen- 
tial characteristic of marriage. 

75. Requirements for the Marriage Rela- 
tion. — (1) Compatibility of temper is generally held to 
be essential to a happy married life. This word and 
qualification is, however, misleading, if construed as 
a similarity of temper, and it is not wise to put un- 
necessary obstacles in the way of marriage. A com- 
plement in temper is of higher value and more likely 
to exist. It is rare that there is a marked degree of 
compatibility in the temper of the spouses, and un- 
less the temper of each is mild, compatibility is not 
desifable. 

Two persons of high temper cannot so well live 
together as two of a complementary temper — the 
one quick, the other calm. The mild-tempered 
spouse will not fret on account of a hasty ebullition 
in the quick-tempered spouse ; for valuable qualities 
oft are conjoined with a temper quick by nature as 
well as with a calm one, and the opposite characteristics 
will gradually become assimilated, and each be im- 
proved thereby. , 

Herein we find meaning to the scripture idea of 
unity, of oneness in the espousals, whereby two be- 
come one flesh ; the most obvious in man, the cor- 
poreal, by synecdoche, being taken to represent the 



REQUIREMENTS FOR MARRIAGE. 229 



whole man, the body and the soul. This is one of 
the many instances in which appears the scientific 
idea in the deeper philosophy of Jesus ; and on this 
is founded the prevailing legal status of unity, in 
the espoused pair. 

(2) Mutual affection and love is the great require- 
ment, is the ruling element, in the marriage tie that 
brings and holds together man and wife ; and each 
of the two souls thus united is bound to cherish this 
ruling element, love. This can be effected only by 
each valuing the happiness of the other more than 
his own — for this is of the very nature and essence of 
true love, so far at least as our limited understanding 
is able to cognize and to comprehend this subtle, 
deep-seated, all-pervading, all-powerful principle in 
human nature — love — with its peculiar electric-like 
characteristic in conjugal love. 

This view is finely presented in The Spectator, No. 
490. 

" Marriage is an institution calculated for a con- 
stant scene of delight, as much as our being is capa- 
ble of. Two persons who have chosen each other 
out of all the species, with design to be each other's 
mutual comfort and entertainment, have in that ac- 
tion bound themselves to be good humored, affable, 
discreet, forgiving, patient and joyful, with respect 
to each other's frailties and perfections, to the end 
of their lives. 

" The wiser of the two (and it always happens one 
of them is such) will, for her or his own sake, keep 
things from outrage with the utmost sanctity. 
When this union is thus preserved, the most indif- 



. 



230 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

ferent circumstance administers delight ; their condi- 
tion is an endless source of new gratifications. The 
married man can say, " If I am unacceptable to all 
the world beside, there is one whom I entirely love, 
that will receive me with joy and transport, and 
think herself obliged to double her kindness and 
caresses of me from the gloom with which she sees 
me overcast. 

This passion towards each other, when once well 
fixed, enters into the very constitution, and the kind- 
ness flows as easily and silently as the blood in 
the veins. When this affection is enjoyed in 
the sublime degree, unskillful eyes see nothing of 
it ; but when it is subject to be changed, and has an 
alloy in it that may make it end in distaste, it is apt 
to break into rage, or overflow into fondness before 
the rest of the world." 

Should it at any time appear that the two made 
one, are not one at heart, it is their duty to be- 
come so, to cultivate and cherish mutual love by a 
reciprocity of kind offices engaged in with courage 
and cheerfulness. A happy outcome can hardly 
fail to follow. 

(3) Congeniality in sentiments and taste is an im- 
portant requirement — to secure which there needs 
be some degree of equality in education, social rela- 
tions, religious sentiment, and in age; an old man's 
tastes do not well consort with those of a young wife. 

(4) Capability for the Common Duties of Life. — It 
is the duty of the husband to provide as generously 
as circumstances allow for the support and comfort 
of the household, by manual or professional toil, or 



PREREQ U I SITE Q UA LIFICA TIONS. 231 

else by the care of his estate ; and it is the duty of 
the wife to guide the house, and to make a judicious 
and economical use of what is provided. 

(5) Authority: There are times for leadership 
and decisive action. The superior physical strength 
of the man, and his wider experience in difficult 
affairs, naturally give him now the superiority which 
the gentler consort gladly yields ; yet her quicker 
wits do often well advise. 

The voice of the man should be gentle and per- 
suasive, yet, if need be, firm and judicious. 

The voice of the wife — gentle and persuasive, yet, 
if need be, yielding, for open revolt is contra to her 
nature, and weakens her influence and self-respect. 

" For love is made of every fine emotion, 
Of generous impulses, and noble thoughts." 

76. Prerequisite Qualifications — The pre- 
requisites, then, for a happy married life may be 
gathered from a consideration of the elements, duties 
and obligations named. 

(i)A Pure Walk and Conversation Before Marriage: 
This in the gentler sex is a sine qua no7i, though 
even here there may be instances of reformation and 
restoration. These are very exceptional, and native 
virtue in a woman must be regarded as an essential 
moral element to her entrance into married life. 

And for this very reason, if for no other, purity, 
virtue in the young man is an essential element ; for 
when he permits unchecked desire to mislead him 
into seductive arts, he makes of himself a fool, as 
well as a criminal of very low grade ; for nothing can 



232 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

be more criminal than to assail that virtue which is 
not only the highest ornament of womanhood, but 
which is of much greater value to her than is life itself. 

Such a young man is not fit for the true conjugal 
life ; and never could find and possess the real joy 
and happiness that is peculiar to it. He will always 
feel cheap, and feel, too, the sting of conscience for 
his past misdeeds — if indeed such an one have a con- 
science — and if not, he should have no wife. 

The restraint here indicated is authoritatively en- 
forced in scripture. " Flee also youthful lusts." 
(II Timothy 2 : 22.) 

"For this is the will of God, even your sanctifica- 
tion. . . . That every one of you should know 
how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor 
. . . For God hath not called us unto unclean- 
ness, but unto holiness." (I Thessalonians 4 : 3-7.) 

(2) An Education and bringing up such as shall 
fit young people for overcoming adversities in life, 
as well as for the temperate and proper enjoyment 
of favoring circumstances. 

The young man should know how to do something 
so well that he can make a respectable living at it, and 
must have a willing mind to do it, if there be need. 

The bride, even though brought up in the luxuries 
of wealth, should yet love industry, and should be 
skilled in the art and practice of economy in the use 
of time, in dress, and in culinary and other house- 
hold affairs. 

"For riches oft take to themselves wings." 

(3) Knowledge of Requirements: 1. In view of the 



DIVORCE. 238 



requirements in the marriage state, an obvious pre- 
requisite is that the negotiating parties should have a 
reasonably clear understanding of what will be their 
duties and rights after marriage. 

2. How far there is on each side a good-will and 
capability to meet duties. To this end there must 
be entire mutual confidence and sincerity in a review 
of their own qualifications and disqualifications ; no 
concealment from each other of faults and differences 
in traits of character and in sentiments. 

3. It should be considered and discussed as to 
how far these faults and differences are obstacles, 
and as to how easy or difficult it will be to overcome 
them. 

4. It must, too, be taken into account that " love 
is blind," especially that when in the pursuit of 
its object, to its enthusiasm, all things seem pos- 
sible. 

5. Hence, if an understanding is arrived at, it is 
well to have a written memorandum thereof, so that 
in case of a " family jar," it can be determined 
wherein is the departure, and thus correct data 
be readily obtained for the remedy and a new start. 

yj. DIVORCE. — To the inquiry why Moses allowed 
the wife to be put away with a writing of divorce- 
ment, Jesus replies: 

" Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, 
suffered you to put away your wives ; but from the 
beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Who- 
soever shall put away his wife except it be for fornica- 
tion, and shall marry another, committeth adultery ; 



234 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

and whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth 
commit adultery. (Matthew 19: 8, 9.) 

It is with reference to the true ideal sense of re- 
straint, that of wanton thoughts, that these scrip- 
ture precepts are given. " Husbands, love your 
wives ;" " the wife see that she reverence her hus- 
band ;■" and others of like import. When these con- 
ditions of the marriage relation, if ever they existed, 
have been lost sight of and have departed, and when 
ill-treatment and abuse become frequent, or deser- 
tion follows, there is evidence of adultery in the af- 
fections and thoughts of the soul, and a wise and 
discriminating judge may find sufficient grounds for 
separation and the separate maintenance of the 
woman and her children, though not for an absolute 
divorce. 

The limitation of rights in case of separation, the 
impossibility of contracting another matrimonial al- 
liance without loss of social standing and liability to 
law, are wholesome restraints tending to inculcate the 
duty of suffering rather than break the marriage tie 
tending to aid in preserving a constitution of human 
nature so essential to civilization and the well-being 
of mankind. 

Jesus enunciates the principle on which divorce is 
allowable, and leaves it to the logic of man's under- 
standing to make laws and rulings which — if not at- 
taining to the perfect ideal — shall at least gravitate 
towards and constantly approach it. 

78. The THEOCRACY. — The entire Jewish nation- 
ality was a theocratic institution now historical, yet 



THE THEOCRACY. 235 

it will always speak and testify to men. Its one 
grand purpose was to make known to all the people 
of the earth the One True God ; and to foreshadow 
and symbolize the more spiritual kingdom of the 
promised Messiah, by the calling of Abraham out of 
Chaldea, by the preservation and aggrandizement of 
Joseph, and of Moses taught "in all the wisdom of 
the Egyptians," schooled into meekness by forty 
years of exile, the Lord then appearing to him to 
commission him as the leader and deliverer of his 
people from four hundred years of Egyptian bond- 
age, by the sublime revelations of moral law and re- 
ligious duty at Mount Sinai, 03' the forty years' dis- 
cipline of a rebellious people in their wanderings 
through the wilderness, by triumphs and defeats 
in entering into the Promised Land, and by the felt 
presence of Jehovah in the holy tabernacle and in 
the ark of the covenant, supplemented by the min- 
istry of the prophets illustrious in their impassioned 
appeals, dire predictions of calamities impending 
over the disobedient, with promises of prosperity 
and joy due to obedience to the Divine will, the 
entire and willing acceptance of the monotheistic 
idea not being drilled into the cognition and the affec- 
tions of this chosen people, till their sins were brought 
home to the entire consciousness by the dreadful 
experiences of the seventy years of Babylonish cap- 
tivity, when they took up the plaint, 

"Ity the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, 
Yea, we wept when we remembered Zion; 
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof, 
For how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land!" 



236 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

From that time on, the Jews have been a faithful 
witness to the One God, and through the logic of 
their prophetic utterances verified by history they 
yet testify to extra-grace and spirit-power under the 
Messianic economy, over and above that justice and 
mercy revealed in the tables of the Sinai law. 

79. The State, Institutional.— //^ origin, 
idea, objects : 

Its Origin : Men and most animals are of a social 
nature. With the brute creation, it is a matter of 
instinct. They herd or flock together or go in pairs, 
for sake not only of companionship, but from in- 
stinctive feeling that safety lies in it. 

Men consort in the family relation, and the social 
institutions growing out of it, because man was 
created not in isolation, but in and for society ; and 
men associate in tribal and national relations for 
sake of the accruing benefits, in maintaining peace 
and quiet and good order — a prosperity of affairs — 
and for a ready means of defense against internal 
discord and foreign foes. Hence outside of family 
government there is developed a patriarchal govern- 
ment ; and beyond this circle are the wider ones of 
provincial and state governments, each having its 
own sphere of duty — the several parts being com- 
prised in one whole, as a necessary idea of govern- 
mental relation. 

Its Idea : The idea of a state as a whole includes 
the idea of all the institutions and laws that nat- 
urally and necessarily belong to the constitution, 
written or unwritten, of an ideal state. 



THE STATE, INS TlTU TIONA L. 237 

The existing state constitution can be regarded as 
an approximation — and always only as an approxi- 
mation — more or less close to the ideal which we 
should aim at. 

Thus, for instance, if we assume as an ideal that 
all the employments or business interests of all 
citizens should be equally and fairly represented by 
each and all of the legislative delegates ; and if we 
then look at the facts, we see that in England, for 
instance, the House of Lords is supposed to repre- 
sent more particularly and specially the interests of 
the owners of the soil — that is — their own interests ; 
while the House of Commons represents the manu- 
facturing and trading pursuits. 

Whereas, by our assumed ideal, there ought to be 
a largeness of view and a moral element wherein 
each legislator or delegate should equally regard all 
interests ; but owing to the prejudices and imperfec- 
tion of human nature, we must be content with the 
best results attainable — only not neglecting to culti- 
vate those better qualities that tend to the better 
way. 

Its Objects: (i) To afford protection to each and 
every individual in accord with his natural rights and 
acquired rights. 

(2) Reciprocally, on the ground of said protection, 
to require of each citizen such service as may be 
necessary to secure the welfare of the state by an 
efficient administration of its affairs in peace and in 
war ; also strict honesty in all his dealings with the 
state. 

(3) To bestow on its citizens such education, cul- 



238 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

ture and franchise as shall qualify them to act the 
part and perform the duties of good, patriotic and 
useful citizens, in upholding and perfecting the laws, 
institutions and government. 

80. The Church as an Institution. — In the 
United States the church is not an institution that 
has any legal authority in civil affairs. As to this 
Daniel Webster thus expounds : "The Constitution 
of the United States forbids to unite any church 
with the state, and so create an establishment of 
religion ; yet this does not argue that we have no re- 
ligion; for religion is presupposed and recognized 
by all our institutions and by every legal instru- 
ment." 

In most civilized and christianized countries, there 
is a so-called union of Church and State. 

This does not mean that there is a union of the 
Christian religion and of civil law in the determina- 
tion and administration of public affairs ; for this 
would be contra to the idea and the ground-principle 
of religion as spiritual, and hence (sui generis) as dis- 
tinct from the kingdoms of the world ; and so in this 
view a union of Church and State is impracticable — 
even necessarily impossible. But it means that the 
church, organized as an institution to represent and 
propagate religion, is surreptitiously, illogically and 
unnaturally made use of by the people, the state or 
the sovereignty to assist in the construction and 
maintenance of government. - 

Some advantages for the time being may have re- 
sulted from such a union. The chief is that the 



THE CHURCH AS AN INSTITUTION. 230 

learning for which the clergy are noted is applied 
by state authority and support directly to the edu- 
cation of the people in morals and religion, as well 
as to legislation and the administration of public 
affairs. 

Prior to the art of printing, and in the years of its 
infancy, books were scarce and too costly for com- 
mon people, and learning was limited for most part 
to church functionaries, and naturally the duty of 
instruction was allotted to the clerical orders in the 
church ; hence the clergy, representing the culture 
of the people, and performing the important duties 
of instructing them in morals and religion, and in 
other branches of education so far as in use, came to 
be regarded as a constituent of the state — as the 
leading estate of a kingdom — the other important 
estates being represented by the landowners and by 
the mercantile and manufacturing industries of the 
realm. Hence that union of interests and powers 
called church and state, which was not primarily a 
union of the spiritual and the temporal ; but the 
clergy, whose office and duties pertained to spiritu- 
alities, necessarily gave much of their time to in- 
struction in those branches of education needed by 
the people to insure the well-being of the kingdom 
in temporal things. 

Hence the clergy began to claim rights and pow- 
ers that do not belong to them, for in reality there 
can be no union of church and state, in and accord- 
ing to the true idea of each — the church (ecclesid) 
being an assembly of persons called out from the 
world to contemplate, and as a church to occupy 



240 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

themselves about, questions purely moral and re- 
ligious. 

Theoretically there can be no contradiction be- 
tween the service of the church and of the state, 
and in practice there need not be, and should not be. 
The clergyman, in his office as pastor, priest or 
prophet, serves the church; as a citizen, and with 
views of duty enlightened and enlarged by his su- 
perior literary acquirements — the scriptures inclu- 
sive — he serves the state. The two functions are 
entirely distinct, yet harmonize, when rightly appre- 
hended. The two kingdoms — the temporal and the 
spiritual — do not blend nor coalesce ; there is no 
union of elements. They are parallel forces, and 
should tend in one direction, and, in a truly natural 
sense, to one end ; for each and both the spiritual 
and the temporal should flow from one fountain — 
the true and the right. 

81. Disadvantages of a Church and State 
Union. — The chief disadvantages of a Church and 
State union are : 

(i) That this union inculcates a false idea of re- 
ligion—its nature and office — exalting the formal 
and the temporal to the loss of the spiritual. 

(2) It invests the church and the clergy with pow- 
ers, dignities and duties that do not pertain to their 
primal function and essential character as priest, 
pastor, teacher in the relations of man to the great 
Creator, Law-giver and Redeemer. 

Thus in England, the church is charged with 
the duty of instruction at large, and in virtue of 



D I SAD VA N T, I G E S ; C H UR CHS TA TE UNI ON. 241 



this important function and service, it becomes 
one of the estates of the realm ; namely, one of 
the powers t)f the government ; the high ecclesi- 
astics, the bishops, archbishops being entitled, ex- 
officio, to seats in Parliament — their bishoprics be- 
ing endowed at government expense with ample 
revenues. 

(3) It invests the government with powers and 
duties that do not properly pertain to it. In Eng- 
land the king appoints the bishops to their bishop- 
rics. Henry VIII, by consent of Parliament, 
assumed the title of ''Head of the Church" — a 
misnomer except in a sense not applicable to the 
church, but applicable to its clergy in their relation 
not to the churchy but to the state alone ; namely, in 
the sense that the king, in virtue of his office, may 
have power to appoint or to remove the clergyman, 
so far as relates to the use of the clergy in state in- 
terests, as educators of the people, and as represent- 
ing in Parliament the educational interests of the 
realm — thus far the clergy being and constituting 
one of the estates of the kingdom. In France, 
"The Estates General" consisted of the nobles, the 
clergy, the commons — the middle class in towns 
and the peasantry. 

The distinction between service due to the state 
and service due to the church is clearly made by 
Jesus when he says : 

"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which 
are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." 
(Matthew 22 : 31.) 

(4) The church and its dignitaries become puffed 

16 



242 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

up, and claim more than the people and their rulers 
at first intended. 

Thus in England, extensive properties assigned to 
and possessed by the lords of the soil and the 
barons, were bestowed - upon the chureh — that 
church which was recognized as the national church. 
But the question arises, what form of Christianity 
should be national, or should be the established 
church? 

The question gives rise to contentions, tumults, 
fightings, wars, and finally to cruel persecutions for 
religious opinions, which the party in power hold to 
be heretical ; all which is entirely at variance with 
the letter and spirit of pure religion, of "the wisdom 
that is from above, first pure, then peaceable, gentle 
and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good 
fruits." (James 3 117.) 

But tempora mutantur [times changed] and inter- 
ests change with them ; and by a revulsion of feel- 
ing consequent upon its usurpations, and its abuses 
in doctrine and practice, the church is now stripped 
of its ill-got wealth, and more too — is deprived of 
much even that properly belonged to it. 

82. Public Education, Institutional. — Un- 
der the several heads Education as social, ethical, 
natural and logical, the public function of education 
has been discussed somewhat, and there is little oc- 
casion for its further consideration. 

Education begins in the family ; the parents have 
the first right and duty in the education of children 
in their early years. In ancient times this was gen- 



PIE L1C EDUCATION; INSTITUTIONAL. 243 

crally the only instruction children received — very 
meagre — the source being low. Often home educa- 
tion and training is very defective, and of tendency 
to evil from the ignorance or the moral weakness of 
parents, as in the case of the high priest Eli, who 
from indolence and lack of moral courage allowed 
his sons to fall into evil ways — to the ruin of himself 
and his house ; for we read that — 

" When the messenger announced that Israel had 
fled before the Philistines, and that his two sons 
Hophni and Phinehas were dead and the ark of God 
taken, Eli fell from off his seat backward and died, 
and his daughter in law, Phinehas' wife, named her 
infant child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed 
from Israel, for the ark of God is taken." (I Samuel 

12.) 

And IcJiabod is written in the history of every 
people when morality and religion is neglected in the 
education of its youth. 

Warlike states like Rome, Sparta, exercised con- 
trol over their youth, but for martial purposes. 
They were educated to the arts of war, not of peace ; 
hence their education was physical — a mere training 
for strength and agility, and in the use of weapons. 
But from the need of culture and training to secure 
qualities serviceable to the state and nation in time 
of war, there arose the general idea of duty on the 
part of the state in providing means of education. 
This is specially true in Christian countries — in sev- 
eral enlightened states of Europe, as well as in the 
United States of America. Here with us the system 
of public education takes the place the national 



244 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

church in England has been wont to occupy in gen- 
eral education. 

$3. Family; State — ^Vhich?— At times the 
question has arisen as to the superiority in educa- 
tional interests, Shall the parent or the state deter- 
mine what the child shall be taught ? 

This is quite like the question of superiority in 
the family itself, as between man and wife. Each 
has its own sphere of duties and rights, and each in 
its own sphere has the superiority. 

In a well informed and well regulated household 
this question of superiority will never arise ; neither 
side will encroach upon the other. But if the wife, 
without reason, claims rights that do not belong to 
her, the man may assert his superiority ; on the 
other hand, if the man, without reason, claims 
rights, the woman may not be able to assert su- 
periority. 

In a moral as well as a legal view, the question 
of superiority must be subordinate to that of 
duty. 

Under Democratic-Republican institutions, educa- 
tion to a certain extent, and to a large extent, must 
be in common ; that the youth in all stations in life 
may learn to respect each other, and to mingle to- 
gether in public on an easy footing of kind regard 
born of youthful associations and a recognition of 
common interests and of manly virtues. 

The question, then, is one of duty, and can be- 
come one of superiority only when duty fails. 

In education, what duties do the individual and 



CAPITAL; LABOR— THE IDEA. 245 

the family owe to the state ; and what does the state 
owe to them ? 

It is an ethical question in moral and civic rela- 
tions. 

As individuals and as families, men are in duty 
bound to realize a culture that best qualifies for citi- 
zenship and the service of the state ; and on the 
other hand, the state, in the interest of the people 
and of progressive life-giving, life-preserving institu- 
tions, is bound to require of the individual and of the 
family this necessary culture whenever a deficiency 
occurs — from whatever cause — whether from the 
general laxity of chronic ignorance and indolence, 
or from the tendencies of a partial or misleading or 
vicious home or private education. 

84. Capital: Labor — The Idea. — Before we 
can advisedly enter upon an ethic view of capital 
and labor in their relation to each other, it is neces- 
sary that we have some preliminary consideration 
and understanding of their economic principles. 

(1) Capital is not Labor, though in the United 
States the capitalist largely combines his own labor 
with his capital, and in general is a hard worker. 

Capital derives its meaning from caput, the head, 
and implies that Mind — wisdom and prudence — has 
been exercised in taking care of the united products 
of prior capital and labor to secure means for the 
employment of present and future labor. 

Capital in its idea also includes material ; it means 
the supply of all that is necessary to keep work at 
work. 



246 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

The farmer-capitalist provides land, teams, farm 
machinery, seed, and also food and cash, the wages 
of his hired help. 

The manufacturer provides mills, power, material 
or raw stock, and suitable machinery for its manu- 
facture, as well as cash wages for the employee. 

Capital is like the main-spring of a watch ; it sets 
all the wheels in motion ; and when capital is de- 
stroyed by fire or flood or riot, there is so much less 
power for the employment of labor. 

(2) Labor is not Capital. — It is becoming fashion- 
able to speak of labor as the capital of the laboring 
man ; but labor is not capital — is not entitled to •the 
earnings of capital ; it is a misnomer and a mislead- 
ing notion which a public lecturer or teacher will 
now'and then carelessly give utterance to; it tends 
to the erroneous notion that the laborer has a right 
to some of the profits of capital ; but he has a right 
only to fair compensation for good work in aid of 
capital prosecuting the business, whether there be 
profit or loss. If we say that labor is capital, and 
hence that the laborer is entitled to share in the 
profits, by parity of reasoning we also say that he 
must share in the loss, when there is one, as is often 
the case. 

It is true that in a continual course of prosperity 
or of adversity — "good times, hard times" — the 
wages of labor will advance or decline, as they 
should ; but the present time or season can alone be 
regarded in determining wages. 

There may be, and often is, by agreement, a 
share of "profit and loss" accorded to the old and 



CAPITAL; LABOR— THE IDEA. 247 

skilled employee. This arrangement proves bene- 
ficial. Thereby the employee becomes, in some de- 
gree, a partner and a capitalist. He puts his intel- 
lect, skill and attention more to the work ; takes 
increased interest. 

This is what he gives — the quid pro quo — to 
entitle him to a share in profit and loss, and in a 
qualified sense to be called a capitalist — not in a full 
sense — unless he also puts in material to work on. 

(3) The wages of Labor means what wages or pay, 
in the medium of exchange — gold or silver coin — a 
man is entitled to in virtue of what he accomplishes 
or produces by muscular exertion. If the laborer 
furnishes his own tools ; the woodchopper his axe ; 
the stone-mason his hammers; the plasterer his 
trowels ; the farm hand his hoe — these tools are to 
be regarded as an extension of the man's muscular 
ability ; and so also is his skill and effectiveness in 
the use of tools and machinery to be counted as an 
adjunct of manual labor. The amount of wages 
then depends directly on the quantity and quality 
of the work done, of the fabric produced, and the 
value of wages thus determined in amount depends 
on its power in purchasing such things as the laborer 
needs. 

(4) Value of Products : The capitalist, the pro- 
ducer, is justified in valuing his products only by 
the quantity and quality of the labor used in their 
production, as compared with the quantity and 
quality of the labor employed in producing those 
goods which he gets in exchange. 

Thus, if a farmer in harvest time, on account of a 



218 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

scarcity of help, pays three dollars per diem wages, 
he gets no more for his wheat, oats or hay than if he 
paid but one dollar per day — which is, perhaps, all 
he can pay without loss, when wheat is less than one 
dollar per bushel. The extra wages he has paid does 
not at all raise the market price of wheat. He can 
adjust the loss only by extra curtailment in family 
expenses, or in the rate of wages to his regular help. 
He must rob Peter to pay Paul. 

So is it with the lumberman and the manufacturers 
of wool and of cotton goods ; the market value of their 
products does not depend on the cost of labor, but 
on the quantity and quality of the labor put into 
them as compared with that put into what they re- 
ceive in exchange — supplies, machinery, wool, cot- 
ton, cash. This is the underlying principle in 
estimating the value of goods sold and bought. 
Of course it is modified by accidents — as a shortage 
or a superabundance in supply or in demand ; but 
these accidents, for most part, are too dimly fore- 
shadowed to modify labor contracts. 

(5) Value of Labor : The value of kbor to the 
employer of it depends also upon what he can ob- 
tain in exchange for the products of labor, after 
deducting a fair proportion for his. own time and 
skill in supervision, and for the use and risk of his 
capital in aid of production. 

The due adjustment of wages is, then, a compli- 
cated matter, in which no one is more competent to 
judge than the employer himself, who in reason can 
see through his own business better than another. 



union of capital; of labor. 249 

85. Union of Capital; Union of Labor. — 
Man is of a social nature, and those persons who by 
similarity of work or business are exercised in like 
thoughts, feelings and habits, have a natural fond- 
ness for each other's company, because between 
them an interchange of ideas is comparatively easy ; 
and too, the social nature is stimulated by the hope 
of advantage from a comparison of views, and their 
practical application in their business or vocation. 

The union also tends to develop the better feel- 
ings of human nature in this : a selfish nature might 
argue thus : I know some things about my business 
that my business-fellows do not know ; this gives me 
an advantage over them. I will hold on to it, by 
keeping my own counsel and secrets. But good-will 
and the social sentiments say : Let me impart to my 
fellows this knowledge, for it accords with the pre- 
cepts of scripture, as well as with the law of nature, 
that a man should look not merely upon his own 
affairs, but upon those of his neighbor in a benefi- 
cent, not a meddlesome sense. 

To the credit of business circles in the United 
States, this is almost the universal rule and practice. 
If a business man discovers an improvement or bet- 
ter way in his method of manufacture, it is a 
pleasure to him to make it known to his confreres ; 
and, in fact, this is really his interest, for the moral 
consideration far outweighs the temporary money 
profit. 

From natural and habitual abilities or defects 
there will be differences great and positive in men 
in the conduct of business, as well as accidental cir- 






250 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

cumstances, that result in success or failure ; and 
these necessary differences should not be increased 
and aggravated by a disregard of the amenities of 
life arising from mutual counsel, advice, and even 
aid when needed, not from lack of industry and 
fair ability, but from unforeseen causes. 

Herein, then, is the underlying ethic-principle in the 
union of capital or of labor. It must be grounded 
in the natural law of social fraternity, and of good- 
zvill applied to beneficent purposes. 

As an instance of the right kind of labor-union, 
we cite to that old "Society of Mechanics," organ- 
ized 1784 in New York city for mutual aid and en- 
couragement and assistance to members and to their 
widows and orphans in case of need. Since then 
they have accomplished other useful work, founded 
a mechanics' bank, a mechanics' school, library, read- 
ing room, courses of lectures — all praiseworthy, 
legitimate and practical objects. 

86. The Union as a Regulator of Wages. — 
Were men always actuated by enlightened views of 
their moral relations, there would be no need of any 
objects in the " union " other than those already 
named ; but offenses will come. 

The capitalist and the laborer should agree on 
fair terms without outside aid or interference, and, 
if let alone, almost always will. There should be no 
desire and noeffort by either party to unduly reduce 
or advance wages. 

In case, however, of individual disagreements, the 
" business circle " — the " labor circle " may separately 



UNION AS A REGULATOR OF WAGES. 251 

and mutually determine what is fair ; and, if no 
agreement is thereby, arrived at, the two parties 
must, in a spirit of good-will, agree to disagree, even 
though it may lead to a rupture of relations and 
change. 

The regulative union must be a union limited 
to one locality and to one line of business. Under 
no circumstances would it be right to extend the 
circle of disagreement to include other lines of busi- 
ness in the same locality, or like lines in other locali- 
ties. This would be combination and conspiracy 
on the part of capitalists or of laborers, or of both, to 
bring about a crisis and disaster in some one line, or 
in all lines of business, to the distress of the public 
at large. 

• If it be said that it would be as wrong for a small 
and limited union of employers and of employees to 
assume and maintain contra views as for a larger 
union, the easy reply is, that the conditions of the 
same trade differ in different localities, and hence a 
local question is not a general one, and neither local 
parties nor outside parties have right to assume 
that it is; and further, the local dispute, though disa- 
greeable and harmful, cannot result in great harm ; 
and yet is harmful enough to serve as a lesson to all 
to avoid such disagreement if possible ; but, on the 
other hand, for either capital or labor to enlarge the 
circle of disagreement manifests a deliberate inten- 
tion to carry one's point by coercion and force, and 
has no moral standpoint. It would be an act worthy 
of public condemnation and stringent legislation, 
municipal, state and United States. 



252 moral and religious science. 

87. Capital Combination, as Abnormal. — 
The combination of capital for the purpose of en- 
hancing profits by means of too low wages, or by 
high prices for food, fuel, light and fabrics of any 
sort, are artificial organizations immoral in intent 
and in tendency, and destructive of individual and 
public rights. Chiefly is this true of monopolies ; 
specially so of those miscalled trusts. Such organi- 
zations should be tolerated only when under subjec- 
tion to state legislation and the judiciary informed 
and advised by a competent inquisition. 

88. The Labor Union, as Abnormal. — 

"Act well jour part, there all the honor lies." 

— Essay on Man. 

A chief objection to organizations of this sort is 
that they deaden every sentiment like the one Pope 
gives us in the line here cited. 

Naturally men are ambitious to distinguish them- 
selves in competition and in comparison with their 
fellow men, and this ambition is a very proper and 
beneficial one, provided it be not conjoined with a 
feeling of triumph over those whom we excel. The 
desire to excel in everything laudable is itself also 
laudable, and without this desire we can have no 
hope of success in life. But this honest and neces- 
sary desire is repressed and trampled upon when 
men are banded together in a labor union that prac- 
tically requires the employer to pay the same wages 
to each man without regard to the difference in the 
value of the work done in severalty. Thus it is that 



THE LABOR UNION, AS ABNORMAL. jp 

the leading principle in the labor union is unnatural, 
abnormal and harmful to the well being of the 
social compact ; and thus it is that the labor union 
as a permanent institution cannot last, unless it be 
put upon a natural basis. When men become edu- 
cated by study and experience — even dear bought 
experience — to their true relations, each to the 
other, "every tub will stand on its own bottom ;" 
that is, in the sense of getting a living — and of "get- 
ting on in the world." Each man should hoe his 
own row ; and if from inability he falls behind so far 
as to really need help, then help should be cheer- 
fully given from a sentiment of charity — brotherly 
love — not from a pretense of his being entitled to it 
as wages. There are few men that would need help 
if they were not encouraged in idleness and in- 
efficiency by being placed on a par with the skilled 
and the industrious. Good work is almost always in 
good demand. The manufacturer, the man of large 
affairs in whatever business, cannot do without it, 
and in general will pay well for it. 

In labor unions, abnormal, there is a subjection of 
individual responsibility to the dictum of the few or 
the many. 

The result is arbitrary power and tyranny de- 
structive of a proper self-respect and independence 
in the individual, and of all elements essential to the 
education of men in right ideas of freedom and 
civil liberty ; and to the commonwealth, as well as 
to business prosperity and enterprise, they are as 
pestiferous as wild oats or Canada thistles in a 
wheat field. 



254 MORAL ANX> RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Anarchy and some secret societies tend to like re- 
sults, and are of atreasonable character. 

A lawful union or combination becomes unlawful 
when by its acts the rights of others are invaded ; it 
is then a conspiracy. "An officer may throw up his 
commission when he likes, but if a number of officers 
combine to throw up their commissions at the same 
time, it is a punishable act." 

Other evils of the labor union in late years are : 
(i) The employer has no free choice in hiring men, 
and is oppressed by a "strike," ordered when heavy 
contracts are in hand ; (2) injustice, by ranking the 
indolent and unskilled with the honest laborer ; 

(3) tyranny and oppression towards apprentices ; 

(4) intimidation and abuse of workmen not in the 
union ; (5) intimidation of capitalists, and so in- 
dustries are driven to other places and countries, 
and the very source of their own living is dried up ; 
(6) the violent and criminal in the union fearfully 
championed ; (7) the home and family circle neg- 
lected ; (8) destructiveness and lawlessness an ha- 
bitual pastime. 

89. The Sum and the Moral. — The sum and 
the moral of it is that liberty and free institutions 
are endangered by overgrown organizations, and 
that they have no right to exist under conditions 
hostile to the public good, and so a menace to the 
peace and dignity of the state. 

The ignorant and the evil minded imagine that 
free institutions are established to favor oppression, 
lawlessness, anarchy ; and for them not only mis- 



THE SUM AND THE MORAL. 255 

sionary work is in order, but severe law, if need be, 
to disabuse them of ideas so contradictory and mis- 
chievous. Moral suasion will educate and civilize 
the well-disposed, but not those whose good-will, 
weak by nature, has been spoiled by bad training, 
bad company and bad counsel. 

These can be made wise only according to Pro- 
verbs 26 : 3 : "A whip for the horse, a bridle for the 
ass, and a rod for the fool's back." 

If capital and labor cannot walk together in unity, 
then let us have the health, peace and happiness 
there is in the poverty of small affairs and economic 
living, each in the measure of his fitness and ability, 
and so let there be a due limit set by law to capital 
and to labor centralization. Two other suggestions 
and we close. 

Suggestion 1. That as unions of either capital or 
labor have legal existence only perforce of legisla- 
tion, general or special, and in conformity to what is 
just and right, there should be a court of appeal for 
the settlement of all questions between capital and 
labor — but not to include cases wherein the capital 
is comparatively small, and the men employed few 
in number. Let these take care of themselves on 
the general law of supply and demand. The extent 
of the limitation is not so important as the fact. 
The condition might apply to a capital of $500,000, 
and to an employment of five hundred men. It is 
the large corporations or trusts that are abnormal 
and oppressive, and it is where large numbers of 
men are employed by one corporation that it be- 
comes a hardship to be thrown out of employment, 



256 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

whether it be by their own error or by that of the 
employer. 

Suggestion 2. That co-operative work is practic- 
able and successful when engaged in by honest, 
capable men — and no business succeeds without 
these qualifications in the management. Let the 
strike take this form when capitalists refuse justice 
to the employed. 

Let laborers become capitalists by pooling their 
savings. " Many a little makes a mickle." 

If men individually and collectively have not faith 
for this departure, then let them be content with 
their wages — such as they can obtain in virtue of 
good work, and without resort to unjustifiable, arbi- 
trary measures. 

90. Public Education {note). — It has already 
been indicated that this education should be in the 
inculcation of true principles of liberty, individual, 
religious, civil and political, to secure the true quali- 
ties of a. good citizen, which can be found only in 
enlightened moral, religious manhood — in a knowl- 
edge of those branches of philosophy, science and 
art that directly tend to educate the people for gen- 
eral usefulness, and in true ideas of liberty and 
patriotism. 

This proposition, as stated in general terms, all 
admit ; but when we come to particulars, there are 
diverse voices. For instance: Archbishop Ireland 
read before the National Educational Association 
convened (July, 1890) at St. Paul, Minn., a paper on 
" Religious Education in Schools," which contained 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. - 257 

many timely truths. Some of his valuable words as 
reported read thus: 

4k The State must come forward as an agent of instruction, else 
ignorance will prevail. Indeed, in the absence of state action, 
there never was that universal instruction which we have so 
nearly attained, and which we deem necessary." 

" There is dissatisfaction with the state school as at present 
organized. The state school, it is said, tends to the elimination 
of religion from the minds and hearts of the youth of the 
country. The great mass of the children receive no fireside 
lessons, and attend no Sunday-school, and the great mass of the 
children of America are growing up without religion." 

" Do not say that the state school teaches morals, christians 
demand religion. Morals, without the positive principles of 
religion, giving to them root and sap, do not exist." 

These, and many similar utterances which our 
limited space excludes, well indicate the defects in 
moral and religious education which it is the main 
object of this volume to remove. 

As to the objection of this eminent prelate to 
religious instruction in the public-school, on the 
ground that it would not have the stamp of catho- 
licity, and on the ground of conscience scruples — it 
is not in the province of this book to regard these 
matters, except to refer the reader to the considera- 
tion of the function of the conscience as herein and as 
generally held — its authority and its limitations from 
liability to error, through ignorance, perversity and 
a one-sided education, and that the religious con- 
science can have no standing in its claim for rever- 
ential regard save when it is grounded upon the 
moral conscience. Otherwise the religious con- 
science plea is liable to be carried to an abusive 

17 



258 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

extent. It was against the religious conscience of 
Robert Morris to fight an enemy, yet he gladly gave 
to his country the aid of his great ability in pro- 
viding the sinews of war: 

Further, we point to the ground-principle in this 
volume — to the doctrine of necessary and universal 
thought in religion — in Christianity — in morals and 
other science, as a " stamp of catholicity " upon the 
very substance of religion, to wit, conviction of sin, 
faith in God's provision for man's redemption, hope 
and joy in the appropriation of it, eventuating in 
good works. Let the scholar study into this sub- 
stance and possess it, if he will ; then can each array 
truth in such raiment of ritual, church polity and 
creed, as his own observation and the social and 
church influence he is in contact with, may approve. 
Nor will men who are self-satisfied, and see no need 
of Divine aid to improve their situation, stand in the 
way of a scientific and logical investigation, and so 
act the part of the dog in the manger — neither eat 
hay nor let the ox eat it. 

The State of Wisconsin has spent a sum of money 
in trying to determine the proper way of cutting a 
seed potato to give the best results. After all 
experimenting, the official in charge could only say 
that at times the longitudinal cut, or the transverse, 
or the clip of the eye-end, or even the potato 
planted whole would do best ; it depended much on 
the soil and the spell of weather. Of one thing, 
however, the farmer might be sure: to insure a good 
crop, the potato-slip with not less than one good, 



PUBLIC EDUCATION. 259 



sound eye must be planted, in good soil and well 
cultivated. 

This is exactly what is requisite in public school 
education. The moral and religious nature in boys 
and girls must be planted in generous soil — not in 
one barren of religious elements, and must be duly 
cultivated and kept clear of w r eeds. 

State officials, doctors of divinity, doctors of law 
— for the legal mind from the nature of its employ- 
ment has enlarged views of religion — would be 
competent to determine what are the necessary 
laws of life and 'growth, when they could say 
nothing certain about sectarian dogmas, polities 
and creeds — all which though very valuable in their 
way as tending by discussion to keep alive es- 
sential truths, and as auxiliaries in promoting 
growth and progress, do in themselves contain 
but little of the essentials, and unless guardedly 
stated and rightly explained are apt to mislead the 
unthinking into the crude idea that religion is a 
matter of form rather than of substance — a matter 
of dogmatic statement, and of positive enactment, 
and not — that it is a constitutional provision in the 
soul, and a law of the spirit in man in his relation to 
the Divine law and government — for law and order 
pervade all the works and acts of God including a 
Law of Grace whereby " Justice and mercy meet to- 
gether." 

We must always distinguish widely between the 
w T ork of the school-room by instruction in the princi- 
ples of a science of religion, and the work of the 
church in the practical and effectual application of 



260 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

those principles to the reclamation of the sinner 
and his preparation for the life that now is, and is to 
come. On the other hand, instruction in the sub- 
stance — the necessary truths of religion — prepares 
the scholar to receive the aid of the church, or 
else, as circumstances determine, fits him to go on 
alone in the attainment of a right life here and of a 
higher life hereafter. 

These two lines of duty. That of the state in 
moral and religious instruction, and that of the 
church in reclamation and edification in no way 
interfere or overlap, and the state's work is not 
sectarian, nor can be ; and is in no manner a union 
of church and state, nor contra to the constitution 
of the United States ; but rather it is a positive duty 
of the state to do this work, to secure to all our 
youth elementary education in all philosophy and 
science, to widen the sphere of their ideas and feel- 
ings and to put their souls in a large place high 
above the low plane of a strictly secular or sectarian 
line of thought. 



EXPLANATORY NOTES. 



Section i. Note i. Kant, Immanuel [1724- 
1804] : A distinguished German philosopher and 
professor in the University of Konigsberg. The 
leading feature of his philosophy is that the mind 
itself furnishes a cognitive factor or element that 
transcends that in sensation, hence the transcen- 
dentalism of his philosophy ; contra to Locke, John 
[1632-1704], an English philosopher, of an easy, 
popular style, who held the source of cognition and 
knowledge to be in sensation — the mind itself being 
regarded as a blank, or as white paper, till furnished 
from without. 

Hume, David [Edinburgh, 1711-1776], accepting 
the philosophy of Locke, deduced therefrom that 
the idea of " cause and effect " is acquired from ex- 
perience, in seeing one thing or appearance follow 
another in regular order ; hence we could have no 
idea of a First Cause, because not in the field of 
sensation, or in the range of our observation. 

This legitimate result of Locke's theory makes 
the feature of Hume's philosophy, and marks it as 
skeptical, in the sense that it gives no sure origin or 
ground of knowledge, neither of the world nor of its 
Creator. But Locke had a faith in the scriptures 



261 



262 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

that saved him from spiritual skepticism — from the 
logical tendency of his own philosophy. 

Note 2. CATEGORIES: The a priori or pure no- 
tions of the understanding, to wit : notions as to 
Quantity, Quality and Relation or Reciprocity. They 
are functions of the understanding employed in the 
cognition of objects. 

Sec. 2. Note i. Cicero, Marcus Tullius [b. 
106 B.C.], an illustrious Roman orator, philosophical 
writer and statesman, called " the father of his 
country " for his defeat of the Catiline conspiracy. 
As an author he was voluminous and distinguished 
for beauty and clearness of style and thought. 

Note 2. De OfficiiS: the title of Cicero's ad- 
mirable treatise on the Duties of Life. 

Note 3. Deal with yourself — conscientiously ex- 
amine motives. 

Note 4. SCHOOLS : Sects in philosophy ; the ref- 
erence here is to the Epicureans, who see a supreme 
good in pleasure. 

Note 5. Institutes: Determines its location and 
in what it consists. 

Note 6. Chief GOOD : The highest end of life. 

Note 7. BOUND by the excellency of nature ; i. e., 
native good sense and disposition restrains and 
counteracts the effect of the false principle of life 
he has instituted. 

Note 8. HONESTY : In Cicero's usage here stands 
for all the virtues. 

Note 9. Character of Certitude : Proposi- 
tions necessarily true have this character; for ex- 
ample, the geometrical axioms — a straight line is the 



EX PL A NA TORT NOTE S. 263 

shortest possible ; parallels do not meet ; and all 
theorems logically reasoned therefrom. 

So in the domain of morals, there is certitude 
when the moral quality of an act is immediately 
perceived or is self-evident, as in feeding the hungry, 
succoring the distressed, obeying the Creator. Also 
there are moral sentiments that carry within them- 
selves a conviction of truth to nature ; for instance, 
of this kind is the utterance of Chremes in one of 
Terence's comedies, thus : 

v4 1 am a man, and nothing human is foreign to me.'' 

At this sentiment, all the people rose up with a 
shout of approval, because of its accord with every- 
body possessed of the right feelings of humanity. 

Note 10. O Sox Marcus : Cicero is writing De 
Officiis for the benefit of his son, whom he had sent 
to Athens to study Greek philosophy. 

Note 1 1 . Form and Features of Virtue : This 
is a very expressive figure of speech, personifying 
the abstract idea, Virtue. We can judge something 
of a man's character by his features — the expression 
of his countenance ; but in self-examination and in 
self-consciousness we have a clear view of our own 
inner moral features. 

Sec. 3. Note 1. PLATO : A noted Greek philoso- 
pher ; his main purpose was to exhibit principles in 
the art of method in the investigation of truth. His 
most interesting doctrine is that of innate ideas, that 
is, forms of things in the intellect, as of a circle or 
other geometrical figure — these evidently are mental 
types, because as perfect forms they are not found 



264 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

in the reality of nature ; and forms of the abstract 
sentiments and feelings of the soul — as of truth, 
duty, right, beauty. 

Note 2. Ideal Republic: The central object of 
the Platonic philosophy ; a body politic or state as 
near perfection as may be — not so much by means 
of its riches and material prosperity as in the right 
education and training of the people in sentiments 
of patriotism and in all the virtues. 

Sec. 4. Note 1. Allegory: The presentation of 
something real by an imaginary picture of re- 
semblances, as in " the Vine ;" also in Bunyan's Pil- 
grim's Progress is a fine instance of the allegorical 
method ; also in the eightieth Psalm. 

Note 2. De Finibus : Cicero's treatise on the in- 
quiries of different sects of philosophers into the 
chief-good of man — ills inclusive, for the full title is 
De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum — the Latin, finis; 
the Greek, telos — the end of things good and evil, 
because as the summum t)onum — chief-good — this 
end itself can be referred to nothing else, but all 
must be referred to it. In Ancient philosophy, 
physical pain and evil were in general contrasted 
with pleasure and " the good." 

The poet Ennius, as Cicero quotes him, modifies 
this view thus : 

" The man who feels no evil does 
Enjoy too great a good." 

This sentiment, that pain is not an unmixed evil, 
is found in a " philosophy of life " regarded as pro- 
gressive or evolutionary, wherein pain is one of the 



EXPLANATORY NOTES. 265 

necessary forces of nature ; and in the deep phi- 
losophy of scripture, it is a necessary force of posi- 
tive value in the development and lasting perfection 
of the moral nature. See Job; Psalms 119: 71; Romans 
8 : 17-23 ; I Peter 1 : 6, 7, et passim. 

Note 3. Pythian Apollo : A heathen god ; son 
of Jupiter, famous for his oracles. On the site of 
his temple he slew the Python, a monster serpent — 
hence the cognomen Pythian. 

Note 4. Ethically Obeys : From moral feelings 
and considerations, not from constraint. 

Sec. 5. Note i. Ancient Philosophy: The ref- 
erence here is to philosophy as cultivated by the 
Greeks. 

Note 2. EPICUREAN : So called from Epicurus, a 
noted and popular teacher of philosophy, who lived * 
just after Plato's time. His principle placed the 
tclos, finis, or the summutn bonum. in pleasure ; yet 
Epicurus is credited with a simple and frugal habit 
of life. Cicero finds fault not with the man him- 
self, but with the tendency of his narrow, low view 
of life to mislead his numerous disciples and fol- 
lowers. 

Note 3. Stoic : A sect or school of philosophy 
founded by Zeno. The name comes from stoa, the 
porch where Zeno taught. It was a pictured portico, 
the most famous in Athens, hence Stoic literally 
means " the man of the porch." Their doctrines 
are indicated in the text. 

Peripatetic — walking about : This name comes 
from the public walk in the Lycaeum, which the 
disciples of this school frequented. 



266 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Note 4. Necessary and Universal: Neces- 
sary, as inborn, constitutional: Universal, as self- 
evident to the soul of man, and so acceptable to all 
men. 

Sec. 6. Note 1. Categorical-Imperative: 
The self-determination of the moral law, through 
man's moral and rational nature; hence thfs moral 
law is constitutional law — and therefore is impera- 
tive, as well as universal. 

Note 2. Universal Law: See section 5, note 4; 
section 6, note 1. 

Note 3. Intuitions of the Soul : An intuition 
is an act of immediate cognition and knowledge as 
contrasted with knowledge gained by reasoning and 
experience : thus we can have an intuition of the 
duty of obedience to the laws of God. The Creator 
must be infinitely superior to the creature, from the 
very nature of this relation, and should therefore be 
obeyed; but as to how God is known, or what 
are his laws, there may be question. This question- 
ing involves reasoning and experience, and so we 
do not know God and his laws by intuition except 
when the revelation of God, or the law of God, 
is self-evident. 

Note 4. Necessary Element: Founded in the 
necessities of the moral nature. 

Notes. METHOD: " A rational progress towards 
an end." 

Note 6. Critical Philosophy : That of Kant, 
so called from his "Critique of Pure Reason." 

Note 7. A Priori Character: Distinctive marks 
of a form of thought pre-existent in the mind prior 



EXPLANATORY NOTES. 267 

to experience and without which a rational experi 
ence would not be possible: for instance, yesterday 
resting on a rock by the roadside, it felt cold to me ; 
to-day, it feels warm. Here there are two distinct 
sensations — empirical observations — and nothing 
more. But if I account for them by saying it was 
cloudy yesterday, but to-day the warm sunshine has 
heated the cold rock, this observation as to the 
cause of difference in sensation has an a priori 
character. It originates not from the rock nor from 
the sun, nor from my feelings, but from the intellect 
— sensation being merely the inciting cause. 

Note 8. Practical Philosophy : Critique of 
"The Practical-Reason." It explains the opera- 
tions of the soul's intellectual, moral nature within 
itself. Its application is to the moral and the 
religious; whereas, "Critique of Pure Reason" 
regards the relations of the understanding to the 
outer world. 

Note 9. Understanding. By the understanding 
is meant our faculties for acquiring knowledge 
through our perception of sensations received from 
the world of matter outside of us. The understand- 
ing is here contrasted with the pure reason which 
deals with pure thought, as in mathematics and 
logic. 

Note 10. Empirical. " In philosophic language, 
the term empirical means simply what belongs to or 
is the product of experience or observation." — Ham- 
ilton. 

Note 11. Sensuous Content. When anything 
is cognized or known through our senses, the object 



268 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



so known is said to be sensuous as to its matter or 
content. 

Note 12. Moral Intuition. Note 3, this sec- 
tion. " Intuitions of the soul." 

Note 13. Certitude: Section 2, note 9. 

Note 14. Character of Necessity and Uni- 
versality: It is by necessity of thought that 
we say two halves make a whole ; a circle is round ; 
a triangle has three sides; an object occupies space; 
time is represented by motion ; God as Creator of all 
is Supreme ; and there is universality when the con- 
stitutional affections of the soul are touched. See 
section 2, note 9. These characteristics give rise to 
the intuitive or self-evident. By some mischance 
Dr. McCosh finds fault with Kant and Hamilton for 
making this character the test of truth ; reverses the 
order and makes necessity and universality arise from 
the intuitive or self-evident. See Hopkins' " Law of 
Love," p. 329, ed. of 1884. 

Note 15. Self-evident has been sufficiently ex- 
plicated in the preceding note and in section 2, 
note 9. 

Note 16. Abstract Form: The general idea of 
duty is in obedience to our constitutional moral 
relations. 

Sec. 7. Note 1. The Good: "The good," say 
some noted philosophers, ancient and modern, must 
have in itself a good on the ground of which it is the 
good, and until we discover this a good as the chief- 
good, there can be no moral science. Thus good, 
well-meaning men, like Saul of Tarsus, have set 
up some a good of their own device and wisdom as 



EXPLANATORY NOTES. 269 



the ground of right action; hence the origin of most 
religious persecutions. 

Sec. io. Note i. Once for All: Reference 
here is to the evolution theory. 

Sec. 12. Note i. Physical: The relation of 
the physical to the intellectual, the moral, the 
volitional, all admit. Its extent, however, is not 
well defined, and the cause is obscure. 

Note 2. Imagination: The office of the imagina- 
tion is: (i) Productive, as when by its aid the 
manifold of single objects presented through sense- 
organism, the eye, the ear, the understanding 
faculties, are fashioned by an act of synthesis into 
separate and defined objects ; as when we determine 
the varied parts of a landscape — here the hills, there 
the ravines, the woods, the fields, the winding 
stream, the vale. This, the productive imagination, 
is a transcendental function — is in aid of the under- 
standing in arriving at correct judgments upon the 
impressions of sense. (2) The reproductive imagina- 
tion is in aid of memory in recalling vividly past 
impressions. (3) Every writer makes use of 
imagery, but the imagination is peculiarly the faculty 
of the poet, and also of the artist. (4) Desires may 
be excited by the imagination beyond due bounds. 
This is an abuse of the faculty. " Every imagination 
of the thoughts of his heart was evil." (Genesis 6 : 
5.) " For the imagination of man's heart is evil 
from his youth." (Genesis 8: 21.) " But became 
vain in their imaginations." (Romans 1: 21.) 
(5) Fear lends wings to the imagination, and that by 
interaction heightens the fear. 



270 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

The Fancy is the imagination under light restraint, 
and so is only a peculiar form of it; but yet by the 
old masters the fancy is used in a generic sense to 
include the cognitive faculties, imagination, concep- 
tion, 

Milton thus discourses of it : 

" But know that in the soul 
Are many lesser faculties that serve 
Reason as chief: among these Fancy next 
Her office holds. Of all external things 
Which the five watchful senses represent, 
She forms imaginations, aery shapes." 

— Paradise Lost, Book V. 

Note 3. The Understanding: In general its 
office is by means of judgments to unify knowledge 
received through our perceptive faculties. Thus, if 
we perceive part of a roof, chimney, door, or window, 
we judge these parts belong to one object — a house, 
though the house as a whole may be concealed by 
shrubbery ; trees, woods. 

Note 4. The Reason Verifies: Thus in a 
transit of Venus we see a small dark spot, the size of 
a bullet, very slowly traverse the disk of the 
sun. By the concept of cause our understanding 
informs us that either the said spot isin motion, or 
else the sun, or both. Reason now comes to the aid 
of the understanding to correct its judgment and to 
clear up the illusion. .It informs us that Venus, 
seen as a dot, with a motion imperceptible except as 
measured by intervals of time, is not in reality on 
the face of the sun, but is speeding in its orbit 
around the sun at a distance of sixty-six millions of 



EX PL A NA TCP T NO TES. 271 

miles, and at a rate of about 77,000 miles per hour. 

Note 5. Counsels in the province: Advises as 
to how far we should be influenced by these sensi- 
bilities. 

Note 6. Speculates : Thus we observe the ap- 
pearance of the aurora borealis, believe in an open 
polar sea, realize the existence and the useful, benefi- 
cent purposes of light ; but we cannot certainly 
determine the nature and the causes of these phe- 
nomena — they are beyond the range of our under- 
standing; but in the use of our reasoning faculty 
we can speculate about their origin and laws, or 
manner of manifestation. So as to the universe of 
matter: in one view we say it is finite; in another 
view, it is infinite. The reason here speculates, but 
determines nothing. It is because these ideas — the 
finite, the infinite — have no limits within the range 
of our understanding ; they are beyond its reach. 

Sec. 12, b. 

"The development of the human consciousness, accord- 
ing to the triple principle of its existence, or of its nature as 
compounded of spirit or mind, soul and animated body, must 
begin with the soul, and not with the spirit, even though the lat- 
ter be the most important and supreme. For the soul is the first 
grade in the progress of development. In actual life, also, it is 
the beginning and the permanent foundation, as well as the pri- 
mary root of the collective consciousness. The development of 
the spirit or mind of man is much later, being first evolved in or 
out of, by occasion of, or with the co-operation of the soul." 
— Lee. II. Philosophy of Life. 

The extract sustains the idea of this treatise in 
positing the ground-principle in the emotional moral 
nature — not in the ultimate or final end of being. 



272 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

Sec. 14. Note 1. Concrete: That which has 
material substance. 

Note 2. The Highest Good : It is not the petty 
a good, nor a thousand morally good things, that 
constitute and determine the highest ; but practic- 
ally we find it in the good-will, where Kant puts it — 
in the natural bent of the disposition to love and 
to seek whatever is pure, true and right ; and this 
longing soul, when enlightened by the Spirit's 
power, finds its highest end in God, and becomes 
like him, fruitful and abounding in good works. 

The ground-principle and the ultimate " chief- 
good " coincide when man has attained to the per- 
fection of his nature. In this state he truly knows 
"the. good," and has the will to lay hold of it. 
Practically, however, he cannot fully know "the 
good" — to attain to such knowledge, he must know 
all that is knowable about nature, humanity and the 
Creator, and this is always in the future; but man 
can attain to the good-will, and to obedience to it — 
which is the practical ground-principle — the chief- 
good. This is within the reach of all, lettered or 
unlettered. 

We have thus in the text and in the notes fully 
explicated " the good " and the " a good," because the 
distinction in these ideas is not kept well in hand by 
certain noted moral-science writers, whose systems — 
whether they will it so or not — surely tend to ground 
morality in utility, rather than in the beauty of 
truth. 

Sec. 17. Note 1. Sign here means the repre- 
sentation we make to ourselves and the evidence we 



EX PL A NA TOR T NO TBS. 273 

have of moral power, when we apprehend and appro- 
priate the doctrine of morality and religion con- 
joined — two elements — one moral force, like as the 
two elements, oxygen and nitrogen, unite to make 
the one life-giving element — the air we breathe. 

Sec. i 8. Note i. One Regard: The forbidden 
fruit. 

Sec. 22. Note i. Associated Ideas, etc. : The 
reference here is to the associational and materialistic 
schools of philosophy — Bain, J. S. Mill, Hume, 
Spencer. 

Note 2. Repose of Faith : See I Timothy i : 19, 

Sec. 23. Note 1. The Idea of True Freedom: 
Kant's idea is that the will is a faculty that 
determines to action in accord with the conception 
of law. 

This function of the will harmonizes with that in- 
dicated in the text. The conception of law — of 
moral law — is an intellectual act, but becomes the 
possession of the soul's moral consciousness, which 
includes the moral, the intellectual and the volitional 
natures. The will, if a good will, determines to 
action in accord with this conception as mirrored in 
the moral consciousness. 

Note 2. Minding Earthly Things: This is 
the idea in " For I delight in the law of God, after the 
inward man ; but I see another law in my members 
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing 
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my 
members. (Romans 7: 22, 23.) 

Here the Will as ego, personal, though free, is 

18 



274 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

wrought upon by two diverse influences — the law of 
the spirit after the inward man, and the law in the 
outer man — in the body. A true view of the Will's 
personality and autonomy, yet as under instruction 
of conscience and intellect, leads to the idea of 
accountability, and of transgression as sin and 
guilt. 

SEC. 24. The reader will notice that in this 
section the text itself elucidates the ideas abstract, 
concrete. 

Note 1. FEELINGS: The beautiful story of Ruth 
and Naomi is a fine instance of the play of thought 
and feeling when affections become sentiments. 

Sec. 25. Note 2. Ultimate: Incapable of 
further analysis and definition. 

Note 3. Objective Meaning: When written 
moral law refers us to a special duty or obligation as 
its object, and so makes use or application of its 
'principle. 

Sec. 28. Note 1. WRITERS: For instance, Presi- 
dent Hopkins in his " Law of Love and Love as a 
Law." 

Sec. 29. Note 1. Ideal: Not ideal, because thd 
absolute is self-existent, unconditioned, and not the 
creature of an idea. 

Note 2. Sufficient Reason: To wit, given 
certain effects, there necessarily exist certain causes 
of said effects. As in the text, and for another 
instance : The declaration of one God in the first 
two commandments is attested to by the criterion 
of the sufficient reason, for when we study the 
material universe and behold the numberless marks 



EXP LA NA TOR T NO TES. 275 

of design, we see that these attest to a unity of pur- 
pose ar.d will. 

Sec. 31. Note 1. Pilgrim Statue: Said to be 
the largest statue in the world, from a single block 
of granite. 



NOTES— PART II. 

Sec. 34. Note i. Ethics comes from the Greek 
ethos (plural ethe\ meaning custom, usage, habit, 
manners ; or that which has become settled rule and 
law ; Latin, mos, mores (morals) ; for example, see 
I Corinthians 15: 33: "Be not deceived: evil 
communications corrupt good manners [it he]." 
The adjectives are, Greek ethieos, ethic ; Latin 
moratis, moral. 

Note 2. JEHOVAH: The self-evident ; the eternal. 

Sec. 37. Virtue comes from vir, man. Thus, 
what is not virtuous is not manly ; and so the 
essential element is manliness, or duty done in spite 
of obstacles. 

Sec. 40. Note i. The Rise of Faith: Dante's 
view of Divine agency in the origin of faith is given 
in Paradise, Canto XXIV. 

" larga pluvia 



Spiritus sancti, quae est diffusa 

Super veteres et super novas membranas." 

The copious rain of the Holy Spirit which has been showered 
upon the Scriptures both old and new. 



THE SYNOPSIS. 



PART I. 
DIVISION I. INTRODUCTORY PRINCIPLES. 

Section i. Any principle for morals good enough, people 
say, provided the practice be good; but the fact is, a wrong idea 
tends to a wrong act — Locke's sense-knowledge; Hume's skep- 
ticism; Kant's a priori; and moral-science requires a ground- 
principle wholly within the soul's constitution. 

Sec. 2. In De Officiis, Cicero notices weighty matters crit- 
ically discussed upon questions of duty. 

No part of life, private or public, can exclude duty. In its 
culture is all virtue; in its neglect is all baseness. Whoso so in- 
stitutes the chief-good as to estimate it by his own profit, cannot 
cultivate triendship, justice or liberality. 

Honesty is to be sought for itself alone. Cicero's division 
of the question of duty into what pertains to the chief-good and 
what to precepts — a generic distinction. His enwrapt vision 
and eloquent speech; defines philosophy; reason for a science of 
morals. 

Sec. 3. Ancient philosophy, by inquiry of nature, came 
near a true principle. Plato put the chief-good in excellences 
of body and mind and a disposition for virtue — in virtue alone, 
yet increased by favoring environment, by wealth, influence, and 
whatever promotes a habit of virtue, giving rise to a principle of 
duty, namely, the preservation of nature. Plato's ideal repub- 
lic — his scheme of education — regards (1) moral-training; (2) 
physical. 

The moral required music and poetry of moral tone, truth in 
literature and truth to nature; hence Plato's idea — not a mere 

277 



278 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

drawing out of the faculties — meant a purified soul. The special 
means noticed. 

The cultivation of the reasoning faculty or logic completed 
the course; its value and its defects. 

The morals of the Greek and of all heathen indexed by the 
character they gave to their gods; hence a reflex tendency to 
reconcile men to the vices of the gods. 

Sec. 4. Greek philosophy as to the leadings of nature. 

Self-preservation, the first impulse. 

This principle applies to the moral nature. 

The Grape-vine in Allegory: The discernment of all means 
for attaining to the chief -good is beyond the ken of man, and so 
there must be an appeal to the Divinity — to Pythian Apollo, who 
enjoins us "to know ourselves." What children evidence. 

The moral-principle, an uncreated element that has its seat 
and abode in the constitution of the Creator, as the essential 
element of his being, that preserves the being of God. 

Cicero sought a principle for man that preserves man; for na- 
ture, that preserves nature. Why God obeys this principle; why 
man. This principle dominates nature. 

What happiness comes from. 

Sec. 5. What clue to truth: What Cicero overlooks. 

The branch of morals which the Greeks call politikos. 

What a knowledge of heavenly things imparts. 

Ancient philosophy falls upon the trail to man's soul nature. 

Sec. 6. Features in Kant's philosophy — " universal law;" the 
a priori character of the moral principle, and of moral intui- 
tions. What they are — the intuition of Duty. 

The system of Kant summarized; the transcendental char- 
acter. 

Sec. 7. How we know there is a principle of the good. 

The creation of anything wrong in principle — not conceivable. 
The unbalanced fly-wheel illustrates by its disrupture. 

Scripture proof-text as to the good. 

Justification in positing "the good" and the love of it as a 
principle. 

The element of abstract duty as of forceful tendency. 

The Divine Constitution the true ground of duty. 

The ground of morality and the ultimate end distinguished. 



THE STNOPSIS. 279 



Obedience to the moral nature, the ground of duty. 

Why we cannot find it in the " ultimate end " 

Examine the "corner stone" before the superstructure. 

Why " love of God," though an ultimate end, is not a ground- 
principle. 

Sec. 8. The Religious Element. — Webster'-; definition; 
Cicero's derivation, vague views. 

The principle of morality and of religion contrasted as love for 
a principle, and as personal love, the latter dependent upon the 
former. 

A morality false in principle contradictory. 

A false religion possible and common. 

The moral element is strictly a priori. 

The religious element cannot be a priori pure. Explain. 

The distinctive mark of a true and of a false religion. 

The proper attitude of the government towards religion. 

Sec. 9. The Supernatural in Religion. — Men object to 
a science of religion; certainty, they say, is onlv in the "natural.' 

A natural effect comes from a natural cause, but Kant holds 
that the natural cause must originate in a supernatural cause. 

This view illustrated by the history of the exodus from Egvpt; 
specially in the effect upon Moses — the infusion of natural 
courage — by supernatural cause; the Lord's manifest presence. 

Sec. 10. A supreme cause reason demands as a condition of 
nature. The existence of a moral and a religious realm also 
argues the Supreme. By logical method " we look, through na- 
ture up to nature's God." 

Wherein Christianity differs from the religion of nature. 

It refers us to the attainment of a higher spiritual state. 

This as science and fact is properly observed and noted in a 
popular education; but the means of. attainment lie within the 
province of individual effort and the church. A science of re- 
ligion and morals relates to the duties of this life yet introduces 
us to the Spiritual. These distinct offices mark a distinct line 
between a kingdom of nature and a spiritual kingdom. 

The unity of the moral nature lost when the author of it — 
when God is lost sight of. Sectarianism excluded by science. 

Sec 11. Sim of the Argument. — The ground-principle 
not in final ends, but in the self-evident duty of obedience to the 



280 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



moral consciousness; in the "good- will " — Kant's central figure, 
the fit basis of moral-science. The empiric not ignored. 



DIVISION II. PRINCIPLES: PSYCHIC AND 
MORAL. 

Sec. 12. The nature of man, physical, intellectual, moral, 
volitional. The physical consists of the bodily organs. The in- 
tellectual includes the understanding faculties and the reason. The 
function of the understanding. The reason defined — its offices; 
illustration from Cuvier's application and use of the idea. Rea- 
son as speculative. 

The moral and the religious distinct, yet allied. Their one- 
ness and their difference: Moral approbation and the contra. 
The moral involves the Will. 

Man a spirit; when called a soul. What the soul is the 
seat of. Origin of the name. The scripture division into body, 
soul, spirit. 

Sec. 13. Moral Philosophy. — The study of the moral na- 
ture. The moral nature's primary law; its second law. Illus- 
trations: Suspension of law, or its effect; its final certainty; 
instances given. The tendency in natural law and in moral law. 

Sec. 14. Moral science an exhibit of principles and of facts. 
The ground- principle is in obedience — to what ? The good de- 
fined; appetency defined. The good distinguished from a good. 
" The good " in the right state of the soul — in its character. 
The good, a priori and abstract. A good, concrete. Illustrated 
by the love of the beautiful. The highest good, in obedience to 
the moral nature. The true and trtith — their distinction — the one 
a creature of the moral nature; the other of the intellect. Not 
always right to insist on rights. 

Sec. 15. Moral law determines and implies what. — The 
moral nature necessary and imperative; the why. The idea of 
moral law; how rightly enlarged. " Love me " in the first com- 
mandment means what ? When this love accords with the 
moral nature. Love under abnormal conditions not true love. 
Why did Saul act contra to the law of his moral nature ? 



THE. SYNOPSIS. 281 



Sec. 16. Written Moral Laws. — Authoritative regulation 
of moral conduct. The authority is in a divine utterance, or in 
an evident accord with the moral nature, or in both. The wis- 
dom seen in the first commandment; the necessity for its Divine 
utterance; hence its type as universal law. Obedience to the mo- 
ral nature implies a will. General view of the moral nature's 
function: (i) Its innate appetency and cognition; (2) its use or 
the Reason to determine particular cases; (3) the Will in its 
spontaneity and autonomy; (4) the Conscience with its intui- 
tions and power for joy and sorrow. 

Origin of the moral: — exists prior to the perception of external 
relations. Scripture illustration as to the moral nature, the con- 
science and the contention of the reason. Intelligent action; 
Kant's expression for it; a philosophic statement of Jesus' sub- 
lime precept now called the Golden Rule; its origin consti- 
tutional. 

Sec. 17. Religion in the first clause of the first command- 
ment. The second clause assumes that religion is liable to cor- 
ruption. Retrogression as well as progression proved by history 
and biography. 

Natural religion a gift of nature — to be cultivated and per- 
fected; guided by the moral nature. Environments that lead to 
a supreme cause. Man constituted through fear and reverence to 
obey his will. Power, wisdom, goodness in the creation. 
Scripture illustration. Man conscious of limitations in himself. 

These two reverence and love for the true (before noticed), 
distinct: as religious and as moral unite as a religious-moral 
element to form character and a habit of right feeling and doing. 
Religion gives sublimity to morality — leavens it with right con- 
ceptions of the Creator. We thus transcend the realm of intem- 
perance in desire, thought, imaginations. First principles, then, 
are the foundation of a character grand, harmonious, beautiful. 

Sec. 18. Focal points in the logic of natural religion — 

a. Design'. 

1. In the affinities of elements. 

2. In the law of definite proportions. 

3. In the use of the physical forces. 

4. In progression. 

5. In man's dominion over nature. 



2§2 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



6. In prospective value as to our globe and as to man. 

b. The sixth point suggests man's endowments and needs. 

c. The amplified moral law; the reciprocity in revelation. 

d. Revelation of the Creator brings to view a remedial dis- 
pensation. 

Sec. 19. The Conscience. — Its joint action with other 
faculties. It does not discover objective truths; is sensible to the 
intent of the will — its monitorial office. 

Moral intuition, when possible; example: The consciousness 
— its cognitions. 

Sec. 20. The office and power of the conscience. — Illustra- 
tions from Shakespeare; Mrs. Montagu on Shakespeare's moral 
purpose and insight; Macbeth's emotions, lessons of justice and 
warnings; Brutus' soliloquy; his genius [conscience] in council 
with other forces in human nature. Courage in a good cause; 
fear in a bad one, illustrated. 

Sec. 21. The authority of conscience; alone has author- 
ity; can be regarded as a faculty, analogous to the faculties of 
the understanding; tendency to class it with other sensibilit-ies; 
it is in a higher plane and type of being; hence, the "imperative." 
Artistic faculties akin to the moral are allies, not rulers. The 
lower sensibiliiies, neutral or else opposing forces. 

Sec. 22. Note on Conscience. — Involving the ground of 
right. Approval or contra; from what — sensibility, intellect! 
The faculty; why properly conscientia.' 

Contra views: product of force; of environment; of association; 
of intellect and sensibility, as President Porter argues. His 
argument presented and controverted. 

Sec. 23. The Will. — Its function, to execute or not to. the 
thoughts, desires and affections of the soul. These may or may 
not have a moral element. Illustration: George, his plum and 
pear, and his mother. 

The Freedom of the Will: The difference in physical and in 
moral necessity. The idea in trvie freedom. In what way the 
freedom of the will is abridged; only by the empirical. The will 
has spontaneity and autonomy. Volitions have not a time 
relation, as effects from cause; but are spontaneous, originating 
in the will itself. The will as ruled by a sinful disposition. 
Bain's Metaphysical puzzle. 



THE SYNOPSIS. . 2S3 



The True Doctrine of the Will: Its determinations do not 
prove the judgments, but the acts of the soul. The will is in- 
fluenced — not bound by motives. Action contra to conviction of 
duty indicates moral weakness — not moral inability. 

The Will Defined: The will personal. 

Sec. 24. Appetites; Desires; Affections. — Appetites — 
hunger and thirst; instinctive and intelligent action. 

Desires are 

1. Primary, as the desire of property, power, knowledge. 

2. Secondary — difference between the primary and secondary. 
When love is secondary — examples: Love of gold, etc. From 
love of the abstract we come to love the concrete. 

Affections — patrial, paternal, filial. When affections become 
sentiments. 

Sec. 25. Love, as of truth, the right, beauty, piety, modesty, 
harmony. When called rational love. Love develops itself in 
accord with its object. 

Law of Love: Seeks the loveable. How is love modified by 
duty? Love, not a ground-principle in morals. 

"Love of God" — When, right love. Its law — "To love with 
all the heart. 1 ' The law as to man — "To love as we love our- 
selves." Love for a companion — Like in kind, but not in degree, 
to love for God. 

Love of Country — Akin to that of property, but nobler. Its 
ethic law: Values country more than goods — less than moral 
possessions; instances of patriotism; the signers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. 

Love of Gold — Its ethic law: No virtue in love; but only 
in surmounting obstacles to a pure love. Concrete love — no ground 
of right; but is incentive to right endeavor. The "principle of 
right" combines feeling and intelligence; exists as a moral 
faculty; gives rise to intuitive judgments and moral reasonings. 
The moral law applies the moral principle, and by requiring its 
use strengthens it. "Love to God" required as the great motive 
power. How it can be attained to. Must not identify the 
moral ground-principle with "Love God." 

Sec. 26. Set.f-Love, Instinctive. — Not from the moral 
nature; relates to preservation, not to gratification. Self-love, 
not selfishness; is a motive, a proper incentive. 



284 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



Sec. 27. Love to the Neighbor. — Grounded in moral iove. 
When a moral necessity; when a virtue or an abnegation of self. 
The scope of the second great commandment. 

Sec. 28. The Ground of Duty. — The ground of duty is not 
in the definition of duty. The sense of duty an inborn feeling. 
By "ground of duty" is meant what gives rise to the idea of 
duty. "Let each esteem others better than himself," is a fit 
expression for the sense of duty. Illustrated by Lord Nelson's 
battle-cry: "England expects that every man this day will do his 
duty." The ground -principle in duty, like that in gravity, known 
only by its effects. 

The ■why, the //<?a.', unknown, except that the Creator so willed 
it. "Love God": When we do know and when not, the duty in 
this commandment. Its bearing on the moral ground-principle. 

Sec. 29. The Ground of Right. — Primarily is in the Di- 
vine constitution, not in the "nature of things," as some would 
have it. This distinction of importance; further evidence. 

Sec. 30 The Secondary Ground is in man's nature. The 
imperative ground is in authority divine, either by revelation or 
by the "voice of conscience," the general consciousness in- 
clusive. 

Sec. 31. Principles require practice. — Illustrated in the 
science and art of book-keeping and of gunnery. Facility in the 
application of principle necessary in morals. Moral acts un- 
guided by principles are empiric — give rise to a one-sided char- 
acter; hence contentions and persecutions. Instances given: Jew, 
Gentile, Catholic, Protestant, Conformist, Recusant, Inconsis- 
tency of the Puritan. What of Roger Williams. The Pilgrim 
Statue — what it stands for. 

Sec. 32. Pivot Thoughts in The Principles. — 1, 2, 3, 

4, 5- 

Sec. 33. The Metaphysics of Morals explained and illus- 
trated. 



PART II. 

DIVISION I. ETHICS. 

Sec. 34. *Ethics implies principles; is derived from them; has 
its source in man's moral nature; how elucidated and enforced 
by a just idea of the "ground of right." Scripture ethics: What 
ought to be; what ought not. 

The moral law is shown in the Ten Commandments; is sum- 
marized in the two great commandments. 

Our relations to God in these hold the first place; are first 
enunciated. 

The first commandment shows the authority in the decalogue, 
" I am the Lord thy God." The sovereignty of God self-evident; 
how enforced. 

The second commandment prohibits idolatry. True worship 
spiritual. What is not true worship; what is; love and obedi- 
ence requisite. 

Sec. 35. Stringent Laws; Necessity Therefor. — Ob- 
jections thereto: The third commandment; when violated; 
special instances. 

The fourth and fifth commandments are discussed under the 
heads Sabbath and Filial duty. 

Why the first three commandments are entitled to our special 
consideration. 

Sec. 36. The Beatitudes. — General view: The decalogue, 
a summary of duties. The Beatitudes, a statement of moral pre- 
cepts. They are sentiments of universal acceptance; the reason. 

The ethic character in the Beatitude is in the reasons and the 
results — not for the sake of them. The result is purely moral; 
tends to moral perfection. Cause and effect in moral relation; 
belongs to moral science. 

The First Beatitude pronounces a blessing upon " the poor in 
spirit;" the reason. The meaning of the phrase " poor in spirit." 

285 



286 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



Scripture requirements for entrance into heaven. The character 
of the Scribe and Pharisee; of the Publican. 

The Second Beatitude: What we mourn; the eifect. Where- 
in the blessedness is found; King David's prayer. 

The Third Beatitude: The meek man intrepid and brave; but 
is not ready to take offense. With clear notions of duty is fitted 
for a leader, like Moses. 

The Fourth Beatitude: Its definition. Its principle is in the 
" love of righteousness." Scripture proof-texts. 

No ethic character in mere formal righteousness. " Mercy 
better than sacrifice. 1 ' The blessing is for those that " hunger 
and thirst after righteousness." A strong figure, indicating a 
high standard. The duty of man is to attain to it. 

The Fifth Beatitude: "The merciful obtain mercy." The 
Divine displeasure against those who lack in mercy. Shylock's 
compulsory mercy. "The quality of mercy is not strained." 

The Sixth Beatitude: " The pure in heart see God." What 
it is to see God; the good effect. 

The Seventh Beatitude: Peace-makers the children of God. 
" How beautiful upon the mountains." The peace society, 
the peace congress may also rank as ministering children of God. 

The Eighth Beatitude: " The persecuted for righteousness' 
sake." The characteristic of the unrighteous. The right atti- 
tude of the soul under persecution. Scripture proof-texts. Con- 
tra to this was the old rule, " a tooth for a tooth." The ethic 
relation not well understood in those days. Progress in ethic 
views argues not change in principle. The highest end or chief- 
good of man is to discover and appropriate the true content of 
what is right and good. The closing injunction of the Sermon 
on the Mount. 

Sec. 37. The Virtues. — General View: Virtue universally 
praised. Vice reproved — even by the non- virtuous. They know 
the better, yet pursue the worse. Scripture injunctions. Proof 
that virtue is natural to man. St. Paul asserts it in naming 
Christian virtues. The cardinal virtues of the ancients. Virtue 
defined. What Tully says about a virtuous man. The loveliest 
virtues seen in doing good. The laudable virtues; the popular 
virtues; the ornaments of virtue. Virtue and decency very closely 
related. 



THE STNOPSTS. 287 



Industry Defined: When a virtue. The vice of idleness; ex- 
amples. Graphic scripture instances of the effects of idleness. 
Industry and independence; the type of industry. 

Frugality: Akin to industry. Poverty no proof of frugality. 
What people are not frugal. Youth should be trained in fru- 
gality and economy. Frugality as related to liberality. The 
miser personifies the abuse of frugality; his epitaph. 

Ecofiomy: Related to frugality. Its wider meaning. Hannah 
Moore on Economy. Economy not a vulgar attainment; not 
the detail of petty expenses; not parsimony. Economy is in the 
order, arrangement and distribution of affairs — is in a well con- 
nected plan. A sound economy is calculation realized; it is 
being prepared for contingencies. 

Prudence: A common caution; means what. Webster's 
definition; scripture illustrations. Plans of life, as prudent or 
as imprudent. Does bad fortune presuppose imprudence ? The 
Scottish bard's fine version of it. Accidents and providences. 
Kant insists that natural causes and providential are in unison. 
The Spaniards credited the loss of the " invincible Armada " to 
the storm — not to British valor. Queen Elizabeth turned this 
slurring point thus: " Afflavit Deus, etdissipantur." 

Prudence for Girls [Maria Edgeivorth]: Girls need to be 
taught caution more than boys. Must trust to what they are 
taught — not to experiment. What ought to be and what is not 
always conjoined. Material mistakes cannot be rectified. Timid- 
ity and pausing prudence characterize female virtue. Advice 
valued at " a purse of gold." Modern culture and native pru- 
dence — a picture of beauty. 

Self-control: What it means. Under provocation to anger it 
is a virtue. Scripture proof- texts; illustrations. Virtue is pos- 
sible only with control of the appetites and passions. Self-con- 
trol cements the foundations of virtue. 

Purity — Continency: Hearthstone virtues, that stand for 
prosperity and happiness. 

Praise for the Roman matron indicates Roman sentiment, and 
a universal sentiment for virtue. 

Impurity antagonizes all law. As a habit it destroys all good. 
Eras of profligacy; the effect from corrupt leaders and rulers. 

Continency: A law of nature. In man, the habit of it estab- 



288 MORA L A ND REL IGIO US S CIENCE. 



lished by reason, by common sense, and by tbe categorical-im- 
perative of the moral nature. 

Sincerity and Simplicity : Sincerity is honesty conjoined 
with knowledge; simplicity- is artlessness; characterizes the 
child. Fine illustrations in scripture. Nathanael without guile; 
contra: Jacob noted for his wiles. What of Esau ? 

Simplicity and sincerity are natural qualities, admired by all 
men; hence as moral, they have a universal character. Sim- 
plicity of style holds the attention when ornament tires. From 
the simple to the sublime in moral sentiment is natural. Scripture 
illustration: " Consider the li'ies. " 

Charity is love in a wide sense. Further elucidation and 
illustration. The meaning, use and praise of charity in script- 
ure sentiments as expressed in I Corinthians, ch. 13. Charity 
the greatest of the virtues. 

Sec. 38. The Sentiments. — Patriotism: " This is my own, 
my native land!" History affords noted instances. It is best tore- 
call those of our own land. Devotion to the principle of liberty 
in the struggle for American independence. What Daniel Web- 
ster said. The voice of Otis and of Adams in Faneuil Hall. 
The fire of patriotism in the small assemblies of the towns. 
Men of wise counsel and heroic deeds; and Robert Morris with 
the " sinews of war." The ethic character of patriotism. A 
sentiment inspired by the moral principle of duty. Were 
Leonidas and his three hundred Spartan-band patriotic ? The 
negative invalid. The abuse of the sentiment of patriotism. 

Friendship Defined: True friendship compatible only with 
virtue. Friendship in various degrees. The friendship of Da- 
mon and Pythias; of David and Jonathan. Of that between 
Christ and his disciples. The characteristic of friendship as 
given by the Lord Jesus. Pollok's fine lines on' Friendship. 

The Ethics of Friendship : Duty in friendship aptly defined. 
" A friend sticketh closer than a brother." How to treat a 
friend under all circumstances. Misplaced friendship in political 
affairs. Queen Elizabeth had favorites contra to the public 
weal. Washington regarded only fitness for office. 

Honor, defined by Webster, Wordsworth, Pope. How honor 
is affected by " condition." The point of honor with a king, 
soldier, statesman, merchant. Sir Walter Scott instanced. 



THE SYNOPSIS. 289 



DIVISION II. DUTY; DUTIES. 

Sec. 39. Duty defined; illustrated by the good Samaritan. 
The priest and the Levite dead to humanity and religion. Duty 
the element in all moral relation; civil inclusive. 

Sec. 40. Duties to God. — Obedience; scripture texts. 

Prayer a Duty: Its source the outflow of the needy soul. 
The form given by the Lord Jesus; his habit of prayer. Noted 
instances of prayer; Solomon, Daniel. The men of prayer. 
To inquire for the profit of prayer is contra to good sense. 

Praise: Fine scripture passages enforcing it. Argument for it. 

Honest endeavor and wisdom requisite for true -worship. All 
things declare God is o?ie. 

Love for God as a Duty: Not possible to see it and feel it, 
save in view of his true characteristics, as loving, just, holy, 
hating iniquity. Obedience antedates and proves love the 
crowning duty. First in time and value are duties to God. Soul 
elements intensified by science and the sublime in nature. Fine 
passages descriptive of Jehovah's characteristics. 

Faith: Its definition; scripture examples; its origin; faith and 
obedience inseparable; is the foundation of the visions of hope. 

Hope- Defined; leads to a pure life; its grounds, objects, ori- 
gin, primarily of the soul — has reason in it; gives courage and 
safety; presupposes faith. 

The ethics of faith and hope. 

Duties to man run parallel. A kind soul may love his neigh- 
bor prior to love to God. A selfish soul can be corrected only 
by conviction of duty to God. Duties to men are how seen. 
The whole duty of man: "Fear God and keep his command- 
ments." 

Sec. 41. Individual Duties. — i. Self-preservation, a 
natural instinct. Man's duty is to use intelligence. 

2. Health, its preservation a duty; why early hours condu- 
cive to health. 

3. Self-examination requires moral courage. Its use; scrip- 
ture proof-text. To err is human; to admit it is manly— even 
divinely-human. Make good resolves and keep them. 

4. Labor: Dignity and duty in it— when. Is irksome to the 
lover of pleasure. When was labor ennobled; scripture proot- 

19 



290 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



text. The farm and the garden. The scripture promise as to 
" seed time and harvest." Labor exercises the bodily organs. 
Nothing needful produced without it. Juvenal's sound maxim 
applies to the moral as well as to the mental. Walter Scott's 
advice to his son as to labor. Carlyle on work; its blessedness; 
transforms the stagnant swamp into a meadow, with clear- 
flowing stream. 

5. One's Vocation • The ethic of it. When in accord with 
moral law; when contra. Consider well the moral tendency of 
your vocation. 

6. The Ethic of Habit- The perfect in morality need not the 
aid of habit; but a " habit of virtue " helps to resist temptation. 
The focal ethic character in our habits; "Watch ye." Pope's 
" Vice is a monster." Mallet's " Crimes lead to crimes." 

7. Temperance ■ " How blest the sparing meal." Temperance 
is suited to all persons, times and places; is better than Saratoga. 
The animal limited by its nature; man, by his discretion. Tem- 
perance promotes longevity and thrift; is the si?ze qua no?i of a 
character acceptable. Paul reasoned of . temperance; Felix 
trembled. 

8. The Temper: Its ethic character. Duty requires us to 
govern it. A bad temper and love incompatible. 

9. Religion is natural to man, hence there is dtity in it; needs 
to be kept in repair, like one's house; and taxes paid. Ought to 
discover true religion. Necessary; universal principles lead the 
way. Obedience to intuitive truth in the commandments. Study 
nature; search the scriptures. The ethic of religion regards 
duty to self, to society, to state. 

10. Time: The ethic of its use. Two views; quality of work; 
diligence. " Trust little to the morrow." — Horace. "Procrasti- 
nation is the thief of time " — Toung. " We complain that time 
is short, yet know not what to do with it." — Seneca. 

The Remedy: (1) Help the needy; comfort the afflicted; (2) 
live under an habitual sense of the Divine presence. 

11. Observation: The ethic of it. Duty is to observe what 
will be useful. Waste no time on the frivolous. Our range of 
observation depends largely on our vocation. The king as 
statesman and the prince as charioteer. Observe the events and 
signs of the times. 



THE STNOPSIS. 291 



12. The Ethic of Taste and Culture: The study of the fine 
arts and of polite-literature has a humanizing effect. A relish 
therefor is a source of innocent diversion. The pith of what Dr. 
Blair says — (i) The powers of taste and imagination were given 
to embellish the mind; (2) their province is beauty, harmony, 
grandeur, elegance; (3) they exercise the reason without fa- 
tiguing it; (4) they strew flowers in the path of science; (5) the 
cultivation of taste has a happy effect on the life; (6) employs 
intervals of time in a way suited to the dignity of man; (7) its 
ethic character is in its being favorable to many virtues. 

13. Decision of character means a readiness to determine 
what to do; depends on the energy of the will. Napoleon I had 
instant and habitual decision; that is, he had decision of charac- 
ter. In George Washington^ decision was fortified by " the mo- 
ral." Herein is decision of character fruitful of good. In the 
young man, it marks ability to resist the allurements to vice. 

The Ethic of Decision: It contributes to vigor of effort. The 
contra predicted of Reuben by his father Jacob. " Unstable as 
water, thou shalt not excel." It intimidates malice disposed to 
attack. 

14. Discipline: " Do well what you do" is the primal maxim 
in mental, military and all discipline. ' Napoleon I exacting; 
tolerated nothing unsoldierlike. Do one thing at a time; a plan 
of work. " Make hay while the sun shines." " There is a tide 
in the affairs of men." Non-discipline by our wits results in dis- 
cipline by misfortune. 

Sec. 42. Parental Duties. — Authority with love. The 
old Roman law contra to nature. Function of civil law. When 
the parent will exceed his right. Be firm yet mild. The rights 
of children. The virtue of patience. Scripture summary of 
parental and filial duty. The duty of guarding against bad 
habits. "Evil communications corrupt good manners." Juvenal's 
advice. 

Sec. 43. Social Duties. — General view. How social duties 
arise. Equalities and diversities in rights and duties. The 
affections natural that pertain to social duties. When they show 
virtue; when not. 

Philanthropy and Be?ievolence: Why we do or do not 
possess them. Not happy without them — hence duty. Apos- 



292 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



trophe to philanthropy. Philanthropy and benevolence outraged 
by brutal shows. 

Hospitality Defined: A sentiment native to the heart of 
humanity. Atrocious exceptions severely punished. Mungo 
Park and the hospitable negro woman. Queen Dido's words of wel- 
come to ./Eneas. The Indian's "What Cheer?" in salutation to 
Roger Williams. 

Sec. 44. The Ethic of Amusements. — Children's play and 
the games of youth prove what. How beneficial. The desire to 
excel, when innocent. When good morals and amusement part 
company. Wherein is the ethic character, in limitation, in self- 
denial. Like principle applies to temperance in drinks. No 
amusement in what harms somebody. The well-known fable of 
the boys and the frogs shows the abuse of amusement. 

"Love not the world," means that the "love of the world" 
must be subject to duty. The conclusion — Each one to study duty 
as to amusement. 



DIVISION III. POLITICAL ETHICS. 

Sec. 45. Political Ethics relate to moral questions in the 
conduct of public affairs. Citations as to land titles and limita- 
tions. Protection in rights. Qualifications and term of office. 
The elective franchise. International law. How best to secure 
international good will. 

Mrs. Barbauld on Political Ethics: The people through its 
agents enact laws; make war and peace; dispose of public money, 
and are answerable for these acts; especially for oppressive laws 
and bad government that crush the poor. Distinction between a 
mild climate and a mild government. The first a Providential 
favor; the second a National duty. The indolent lose a good 
government. Duty is to keep it. 

Liberty. — Its substance consists in guarantees. National 
liberty is freedom from foreign power. Autonomy, the Greeks 
called it. No foreigner must dictate. Instances of interference. 
Turkey has not autonomy. Our own autonomy endangered, if 
we meddle in foreign affairs. Washington's opinion and advice. 



THE SYNOPSIS. 293 



Institutions promote liberty; are not the essence of it. The 
essence of liberty is in a man's character. 

Magna Charta — by whom granted; its place in the British 
constitution. The constitutional principle of taxation. Articles 
of the "Great Charter." "Nullus liber homo capiatur" the im- 
portant one. 

Sec. 47. Religious Liberty. — Conscience-worship must be 
moral — separation of Church and State — on concrete grounds. 
Relations between Church and State — moral. Reasons therefor. 

Religion and the freedom of the soul. Liberty and obedience to 
the law of right. True religion tends to liberty. Scripture proof- 
texts. The law of liberty — what is it; what does it. This law is 
universal — applies to all men. Liberty is conditioned on the law 
of liberty. Wherein the law of liberty exists. A man destitute 
of it is not qualified to determine institutions and limitations of 
liberty. 

Sec. 48. Personal Liberty. — Must not stand in another's 
sunshine. Illustrations by what is forbidden. Throwing stones; 
bad literature; vagrancy; "Idleness the mother of vice." 

Sec. 49. Rights. — General view: The right, a moral idea 
from the moral nature. All men predicate their acts on the 
right. In the light of the right is seen a right. Examples of 
conflicting rights. Rights in revolutionary times; in the Sa- 
moan-embroglio. The need of the judiciary to determine 
rights. 

A right — Something in accord with man's entire nature. 
What rights all men have. What constitute natural rights. 
Rights and duties correlative, reciprocal — the difference. Some 
rights intuitively seen; other rights require wisdom and judg- 
ment. Right and duty different — a right is something claimed ; 
a duty is nothing claimed, but is something that ought to be 
done. Duty has the pre-eminence over rights. Mutual obli- 
gation — wherein is it. 

Sec 50. Property Rights. — General view: What nature 
makes common to all — what not. The improvident have not 
the same rights as the diligent. Personals acquired by work; 
land, by occupation and labor. Man has a right to property 
fairly acquired. How I shall recover property wrested from me 
contra to law. When property reverts to the State. 



294 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



Sec. 51. Origin of Right to Property. — The Divine 
grant in Genesis I. Man put into the Garden of Eden to dress 
it, to keep it. Outline of title given by the Creator. Particular 
cases of title determined by man's nature. Property rights follow 
nature's tendencies — examples: Abraham's purchase — the object, 
the price. The first land purchase on record. The title of Eph- 
ron, the grantor. What made it good. Queen Dido's purchase of 
a u hide of land." 

Sec. 52. Land Title in the United States. — The right 
and title of the North 'American Indians. Bought by Colonial 
and United States Government. Held in trust for the people. 
Surveyed into townships, sections and quarter-sections. Sold 
for benefit of and by the will of the people. 

Methods of Sale: Railroad grants; bounty lands, and home- 
steads. All legitimate and title perfect. Mineral lands. Timber 
and farm lands. Toil and labor stamp property as a man's 
own. Land monopolies in the United States. The moral and 
economical aspect. Hostile legislation is robbery. "Covet 
not." 

Sec. 53. Blackstone on Property Rights. — Communion 
of goods applies not to their use. The act of possession gives 
right of possession. This rule applies to lands or to fruits. 

Cicero's illustration. Increase acquires title to substance as 
well as to use. Civilization devises habitation and things con- 
venient. Even the bird and the beast fight for their nest or 
lair. Movables and dwellings appropriated before land. Prop- 
erty in flocks and herds; in well-water. 

Isaac's reclamation of his father's well. Agriculture estab- 
lishes property in the soil, this distinguishes ennobled humanity 
from the savage, gives leisure for art and science. Occupancy 
gave the original right. It excludes all save the owner. 

Sec. 54. Civil Liberty. — General View: It protects the 
citizen — this imposes a counter obligation. From what civil 
liberty arises — what it means. 

Civil Rights: Some of them named. A man's house his 
refuge. Warrants. The "habeas corpus." Trial by jury. Liberty 
of speech. Right of petition. Free locomotion. 

Sec. 55. Civil Duties include and require what. Who can 
perform them,.. 



THE SYNOPSIS. 295 



Reciprocal Rights and Duties: The State to do what the 
citizen cannot do. What is required to distinguish between 
duties, private and public. 

Sec. 56. Obedience to Law. — Man and nature under it. 
Law everywhere. The necessity for obedience — principle. 
What to do if the law be wrong; if contra to conscience. 

Sec. 57. The Duty of Interest in Civil Affairs. — 
Everybody, nobody. What the citizen should do; why. All 
entrusted with one talent; some with ten. These foremost men 
serve for honor rather than for profit. James Otis as an example.. 
The "writs of assistance." What he foresaw in the collection of 
duties without the consent of the Colonists. 

Sec 58. Suffrage. — Not a natural right. On what it should 
depend. The ethic principle in it. The man without fitness has 
no claim to suffrage. Universal suffrage in the United States. 
J. S. Mill's view. 

Sec 59. Liberty of speech is a liberty in the realm of 
morals; rights of another kind. When the ethic in free speech is 
attained to. When not right to speak against a wrong. Judge 
Tuley's opinion in the Anarchist suit. His only question is: 
"Are the objects of the Anarchist society lawful?" If so, they 
have a right to discuss what they please. As to this opinion — 
the premise admitted, the conclusion follows. Shall we judge 
their objects by their "by-laws," or by their acts. Fair words 
for liberty; principles that undermine it. The wooden horse and 
the disguised fraud — "Hay market" and dynamite. The captive' 
trumpeter that never did any harm. Is there a correct theory 
of free speech? When the right of free speech is lost. Lib- 
erty of speech not one-sided — J. S. Mill on free speech. 

Sec 60. Leo XIII on •■Liberty of Speech and the Press" 
(sound). 

Sec 61. Veracity. — Homer's sentiment. Truth by nature 
perverted by temptation. Moral truth and fact contrasted — 
the "man in the moon." What duty requires; the habitual liar; 
evil effects; "wolf, wolf! " Scripture precepts. 

Legislation as to the Oath: The common swearer. Wise 
legislation. Limitations of Jesus in the use of the oath — their 
object; argue what tendency. 

Deep philosophy and a true ideal in the injunction "Swear 



296 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 

not at all." Why so. How men should be educated as to 
truth. "I cannot tell a lie." 

Jesus aimed at universal laws to develop man. Like Moses, 
allows something, pro tempore, for the hardness of men's hearts. 
The usual moralist view of the oath. 

Honesty; What pure honesty is. 

Deceit: Its various forms; when wrong — when right to de- 
ceive an enemy; instances cited; the ethic principle; does it ap- 
ply to highwaymen and burglars? 

Casuistry: Its definition; the duty of the parent and the 
teacher to fit the child for self-casuistry; the Jesuists as casuists; 
the enlightened conscience the best casuist. 

The ethic in casuistry. 

Sec. 62. Reputation. — The value of a good name. The mo- 
tives for its injury. Sensible people and idle tales. The mean- 
ness of the traducer. 



DIVISION IV. INSTITUTIONS. 

Sec. 63. Institutions numerous; those of nature; those log- 
ically derived, and artificial ones. Chief are those of marriage 
and the Sabbath of Divine appointment. The character of an in- 
stitution is in its moral tendency. Duty is in the individual 
members, who are moral or immoral in accord with the tendency 
of the institution. Mormonism not moral, because it violates na- 
ture. The church moral when it teaches a true religion. Per- 
secutors are criminal. 

The Moral Tendency of Societies: The proper function of 
the Board of Trade — when violated. Responsibility of its mem- 
bership. The citizen and the saloon. The theatre — in some degree 
healthy ; in large part corrupt. The province of the public 
school and when it fills its function. The responsibility of the 
citizen in regard to it. 

Sec. 64. Institutions, as to the Idea. — As defined in 
Leiber's " Civil Liberty." Single laws or usages are called insti- 
tions when they have importance and permanency. Why mar- 
riage is an institution. A group of laws and usages furnish an 
elementary idea. What idea makes the " school " an institution 



THE SYNOPSIS. 297 



in Germany — the army also. Dr. Arnold's idea of the institution; 
Leiber's criticism of Arnold not forcible. 

Sec. 65. Institutions, Natural, Logical, Artificial. — 
The conjugal relation natural. The Sabbath natural and log- 
ical. The state — when natural, when logical — and is artificial 
when the proper idea of a state is not in its institutions. Union 
of church and state an instance of the artificial. The meaning 
of this union. Origin of the estates of the realm in England. 
Third estate represented by the clergy — illogical inference. The 
artificial third estate. Example in Henry VIII, in Charles I 
and James II. Education natural — wherein. The ethic of the 
public school ; its features as logical denned as in accord with its 
true idea. 

Sec 66. The Sabbath. — Every law of the moral code of 
high value, that of the Sabbath inclusive. Men are too prone to 
lightly esteem it. Experience shows cessation from toil neces- 
sary. Inquiries made in 1832 by the English Parliament. In 
1872 and later Sunday work discussed in Germany. Should con- 
ditions of life obtain that prevent due observance of Sabbath. 
The authoritative law in the Bible narrative of the Creation. 
Why blest as a day of rest and made holy. The Divine compla- 
cence in a review of his work. " How still the morning of the 
hallowed day !" 

Sec 67. Reasons for a Sabbath-day Institution. — 
God rested ; blessed ; sanctified. The Sabbath a universal law — 
primarily observed by all people. The occasio?i for the formal 
institution of the Jewish sabbath. The double supply of manna 
on the sixth day — none on the seventh. The seventh day relative 
— not absolute time. How the Sabbath institution had been 
vitiated. "The Sabbath was made for man." 

Sec 68. The Time of Rest. — The Divine wisdom in this su- 
perior to man's. The tenth day in the time of the French revo- 
lution. Why an individual cannot fix on his own Sabbath day. 
Government under obligation to notice the Sabbath. The 
essential element of the Sabbath day. The day of rest being de- 
termined, six days of labor follow. In Algeria, Sabbath days ex- 
ceptional as to time. The particular application of the universal 
law varies with the environment. The mission of Israel to 
uphold the worship of the true God. Exact and strict laws 



298 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



necessary for this stiff-necked race ; hence the special Sabbath 
laws in Exodus 34 : 21, and 35 : 2, 3. 

Sec. 69. A Habit of Obedience Formed: The spirit of the 
law was changed from a compulsory, formal character to a 
voluntary and a joyful one ; from an enlightened view and a 
truer appreciation of the requirements and the blessings of the 
Sabbath. The moral and religious nature as able to cast off the 
leading-strings of positive law and enjoy moral freedom. The 
prophet Isaiah would infuse a spiritual element into the cere- 
monial and formal in Jewish worship. " Bring no more vain 
oblations." (Isaiah 1 : 11.) Characterizes the Sabbath as a de- 
light, holy, honorable ; and in words of beauty and the sublime 
recites the blessings flowing from its due observance. (Isaiah 

5 8 : *3> H-) 

Sec. 70. True Sabbath Observance. — Not lugubrious, 
but a delight to the soul. 

The Sabbath law yet more flexible in the ministry of Jesus. 
His interpretation of it. No abrogation of Sabbath law ; Jesus 
came " not to annul." Elasticity not to be construed into license. 
Scripture texts showing obligations. Warnings to our degener- 
ate day. Little Miss Winterbotham's exclamation. The right 
use — not the abuse of the Sabbath — profits all. 

Sec 71. Summary of the Sabbath Institution. — The 
Creator, by constitutional law, set apart the seventh day. The 
fourth commandment reminds of what ought and ought not to 
be done. The positive and special requirements show that the 
law had fallen into neglect. Severe penalties necessary to induce 
a habit of obedience. The pure obedience aimed at comes 
through rough discipline. 

As to Time: The original Sabbath had been lost sight of. The 
Creator now institutes a new series of days in accord with the 
means to save the people from famine. In like manner the res- 
urrection of Jesus, with the attendant events, was ground for a 
new series — the first day being the Sabbath. Recapitulation of 
sabbatical eras. Man's wisdom no warrant for change, save by 
Divine oversight. The continued observance of one daj T tends to 
superstition. A time of worship, like a place of worship, be- 
comes unduly magnified. Scripture proof-texts. 

Sec. 72. Legislation as to the Sabbath : A conservative 



THE ST N OPS IS. 299 



view will be taken when the Sabbath is duly appreciated. What 
the " Christian Union " of May 9th, 1889, says: Railroads re- 
ducing Sunday traffic to a minimum. 

Sec. 73. Bishop Whately's " Thoughts on the Sabbath " 
misleading. Makes the law of the Sabbath merely positive. It 
is a law of the body and the soul's nature. Bishop Whately 
finds warrant in the "power of the church," but the church used 
no power. Doctor Barnes' very pertinent note on the change of 
the Sabbath daj'. The first-day Sabbath instituted itself by the 
logic of great events. 

Sec. 74. Marriage. — Prelude on domestic peace. The 
authority for the marriage institution. The sacredness of mar- 
riage. Its holy love. Scripture proof-texts. 

The Conjugal Law: Life-long, permanent and exclusive 
union. 

Sec. 75. Requirements in Marriage. — 1. Compatibility. 

2. Mutual affection and love; how secured — the nature of true 
love; a subtle principle. Extract from Spectator 490, finely pre- 
senting this view. 

3. Congeniality in sentiment and taste, feelings and opinions, 
especially in what pertains to religion and conscience. 

4. Capability for the common duties of life; each one's part. 

5. Authority; when to be exercised — the voice of the man; the 
voice of the wife. 

Sec. 76. Prerequisite Qualifications. — 1. A pure walk 
and conversation. Why the virtue of purity is essential to the 
young man. Scripture injunctions. 

2. Education Special: To fit for adversity or prosperity. 

3. Knowledge of Requirements: a. Of duties and rights; b. of 
capability to meet them with willing mind; c. faults to be con- 
sidered; d. "Love is blind;" e. well to guard the possible contin- 
gency of "a family jar." 

Sec 77. Divorce. — The law of it. Matt. 19 : 9. When separa- 
tion. Duty to suffer rather than to sunder the tie. Jesus gives 
the principle. Man should make laws to put it into practice as 
near as he can. 

Sec 78. The Theocracy. — The Jewish nationality a theo- 
cratic institution. Its purpose, to make known the one true God. 

Historical Sketch of Means Used: Abraham's call. Joseph 



300 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



under Providential care. Moses taught "in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians;" schooled into meekness; divinely commissioned as 
the leader and deliverer of his people. 

The Moral Law: The discipline in the wilderness; the land of 
promise; the ministry of the prophets; the captivity in Babylon; 
the Jews, now faithful and dispersed, testify among all nations to 
the monotheistic idea — "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord;" 
the grandeur of the Jewish economy, as a Divine institution. 
Christianity evolved from it, enlarges the spiritual idea to a spir- 
itual kingdom; to immortality. 

Sec. 79. The State Institutional. — Its Origin'. In the 
social nature; for benefits; for defense. These causes develop 
patriarchal, provincial and state government. 

Its Idea: Includes the idea of all the institutions and laws that 
necessarily belong to an ideal state. The existing state is the 
approximate idea. England cited; its House of Lords; its Com- 
mons; as "to the fact; as to the ideal. 

Its Objects: 1. Its duty in protection. 

2. Its reciprocal right of service. 

3. Its duty as to education, culture, franchise. 

Sec. 80. The Church. — As an Institution: In the United 
States, has no authority in civil affairs. Webster expounds the 
Constitution in this regard. But religion is recognized by our 
institutions. The union of Church and State — what it means. 
Its advantages in educational interests; hence the clergy a leading 
estate of the kingdom, and hence they began to claim rights and 
powers. The service of the Church and of the State entirely 
distinct, yet harmonize and tend in one direction. 

Sec. 81. Disadvantages of a Church and State Un- 
ion. — 1. Inculcates a false idea of religion. 

2. Invests the Church with dignities and duties not of its 
primal function. 

3. Invests the Government with powers and duties that per- 
tain not to it. "Head of the Church" a misnomer for Henry 
VIII. "The estates general" in France. 

4. The Church and its dignitaries become puffed up. What 
is the national church becomes questionable. ' Contentions, 
wars and persecutions follow. Revulsion follows usurpations 
and abuse. 



THE STNOPSIS. 301 



Sec. 82. Public Education. — Institutional: Already dis- 
, cussed under the social, ethical, natural, logical. Education 
begins in the family; if it ends here, is often very defective from 
ignorance. Tends to evil from moral weakness. Instance the 
high priest Eli; his lack of moral courage brought ruin on him- 
self and his house; his grandchild named Ichabod — "The glory is 
departed;" and Ichabod is written in the history of every people, 
when in education, morality and religion are neglected. War- 
like states educate youth for martial purposes; hence the general 
idea of the state's duty in education. Our system of public 
school education in lieu of the national church in general edu- 
cation. 

Sec. 83. Family; State. — Which has the superiority; com- 
pared to a like question between man and wife. Why common 
public schools must exist. The question is not of superiority, 
but is one of duty. What duties in the matter of education do 
pertain to the individual, the family, the state. When the state 
must assert authority. 

Sec. 84. Capital; Labor — The Idea. — 1. Capital {caput) 
implies wisdom, not labor; includes power, machinery, material, 
and cash to pay wages. 

2. Labor is not capital, and so has no right to profit and loss 
as such" though by agreement this may be shared. 

3. The wages of labor defined; the amount, the value of 
wages. 

4. Value of products; how estimated, not by the rate of 
wages or the cost of labor. Illustrations. 

5. Value of labor to the employer; how to be determined. 
Sec. 85. Union of Capital; of Labor. — Its social aspect; 

its moral aspect; its ethic principle. Example for a proper labor 
union. 

Sec. 86. The union as a regulator of wages must be 
local and special. In a general combination there is con- 
spiracy involving unjustffiable coercion; stringent legislation. 

Sec. 87. Capital combinations, as abnormal, are artificial 
and immoral. Should be a subject for legislation and judiciary 
action. 

Sec. 88. The labor union, as abnormal, deadens the natural 
laudable desire to excel; encourages, inefficiency; puts the un- 



302 MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SCIENCE. 



skilled on a par with the skilled; subjects the individual to the 
dictum of arbitrary power; disqualifies for freedom and civil 
liberty. Other evils of the labor union — eight of them. 

Sec. 89. The Sum and the Moral of it.— Liberty en- 
dangered. What the evil-minded imagine; how disabused. 
Health and happiness in small affairs. 

Two suggestions: 1. A court of appeal to settle differences 
where a half million of capital is used in a business corpora- 
tion and five hundred men are employed; less matters to be let 
alone to take care of themselves. 

Suggestion 2. To regulate unjust capital, co-operative work, 
in the long run, is better than "the strike." 

Sec. 90. Note on Public Education — Relative to ideas in 
some " papers " read before the National Education Association, 
at St. Paul, Minn., in July, 1S90. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Achax: The story of his coveting used to illustrate the 

metaphysics of morals ...... 91 

Affections: Defined; when become sentiments . . 74 
Allegory: Of the vine; its application .... 17 

Amusement: The ethic of it . . . . . . 152 

Ancient Philosophy: Inquires of nature, 14; does not 
directly seek within nature; what clue to truth, 20; 
comes upon the trail to man's soul nature, yet always 
seeks the chief-good ....... 22. 

Appetency: Of the soul for the beautiful, true, right . 30 

Appetites: Definition and use ...... 73 

Barnes Alb't.: His note on the Christian Sabbath . . 225 
Beatitudes: General view; ethic character . . 101 

Benevolence: The ethic of it 150 

Blackstone: On property rights 173 

Capital: Implies wisdom; its idea includes the use of 
power, material and cash, 245; its ethic-principle, 250; 
when abnormal ........ 252 

Categories: Of thought have a priori origin, 12; of quan- 
tity, of quality, 57; give rise to judgments ... 67 
Categorical-Imperative: The idea of it, 16; the wide 

ground for its a priori character ..... 23 

Casuistry: Defined, applied. 197; its ethic . . . 198 
Certitude: Kant finds it in the ethic ground-principle . 23 
Charity: The greatest of the virtues .... 121 

Character: Self-intuited as good or bad .... 23 

Chief-Good: Was the search of Ancient philosophy; is an 

outflow' from its source in the true moral nature . 22-38 
Children: Have rights; Scripture injunctions . . 148 
Church: Its union with the state logically impossible when 

we hold to the true idea of each .... 238 

303 



304 - INDEX. 

Cicero, in De Officiis: His question of duty, 12; his di- 
vision of it; his enwrapt gaze, and his eloquent 
words upon the features of virtue, 13; refers duties to 
principles of nature; his error in this regard . . 20 

Christianity: How differs from religion of nature . . 35 
Constitution: The creation of a right one conceivable, 

but not that of a wrong one; illustrated ... 26 
Conscience: A joint action of faculties; its office, 53; its 
function and power illustrated, 54; as of the sensibil- 
ity, it alone has authority, 56; why called conscientia, 
58; its auxiliaries, 59; views of it as a product of force, 

et csetera 59~^° 

Creator: His authority self-evident . •-.■■• • • 2 4 
Daniel: His persistence in prayer ..... 129 
David: The King; his prayer, his thoughts . . . 134 

Decalogue: The authority in it, 98; its first three com- 
mandments relate to the ground of right in the great 

Lawgiver . 9S 

Deceit: In buying and selling, 194; as to an enemy Virgil 

quoted; its ethic principle; Kant's opinion . . 195 
Decision: Napoleon I. and Washington instanced; decision 
of character conjoined with high moral elements 
fruitful in good works . . . . . 145-146 

Desires: The different kinds 73 

Dido, Queen: Her word of welcome to the Trojan hero, 

152; her purchase of the site of Carthage . . 170 
Discipline: What we do, must be well done . . . 146 
Duty: Our intuition of it is prior to knowledge, 24; in the 
abstract is posited as an element in the moral nature; 
the true ground of duty, 27; the idea of if arises from 
a certain moral element, 81; involves feeling more 
than intellect, 83; denned and illustrated; the element 

in all moral relations 128 

Duty of interest in civil affairs .... 181 
Duties: To God, 128; first in time and in value, 131; to 
man, 135; individual, 135; parental, 147; social, gen- 
eral view, 149; national, 156; civil . . . .178 
Economy: Defined, discussed 114 



INDEX. 305 



Education: Natural, 209; begins in the family, and is often 

defective there; Scripture instance, Ichabod . 242-243 
Public: Its ends, diverse views as to morals, religion, 
256; conscience-scruples, 257; stamp of catholicity, 
258; sectarian dogma, church polity, creed, 259; tivo 

lities of duty 260 

Empiric: The empiric and the metaphysic of the soul not 

opposed 95 

Ethics: As a science is based in the moral nature; is the 
application of principles; Scripture ethics are both 
" the ought " and the contra, the authoritative " ought 
not," 97; political, their special subjects, 154; as ap- 
plied to international law 156 

Experience: As affected by a priori faculties; what it 

means. [See Explanatory Notes, §§ 6, 7.] 
Faith: The faith monument, 88; defined, 131; origin . 132 

View of Dante as to its Divine origin . . . 275 

Frugality: Defined, illustrated 112 

Friendship: Denned; its quality; illustrations, 125; the 

ethic of it 126 

Family: Which has superiority — the family or the state? 244 
Geometry: A science originating in intellect, not in nature 25 

Golden Rule: It has universality 49 

Good: "Good" the Divine cognition of qualhy in the crea- 
tion, 26, 212; "the good," how known as a principle, 
25; posited as an element in the moral-nature, 26; dis- 
tinguished from "a good," 44; "the highest good," 

when attained to 45 

Good-Will: In unison with universal law; presupposes an 

inner fount of love 27 

Graham: His lines on the Sabbath .... 212 

Gravity: Its law; accords with that of the circle . . 25 
Haven, Dr: Grounds right in "the nature of things" . 84 

Habit: The ethic character in it 140 

Health: Hygienic maxims ...... 135 

Henry VIII: His Pope title; his Parliament title . . 208 
Holy Writ: Its law as to the day of rest . . . 211 
Homologia: Analogous to the will and the moral nature in 

agreement 20 



306 INDEX 



Honor: A nice sense of right; illustrations . . . 126 

Hope: Its visions, leadings, grounds, 132; its origin, the 

soul's anchor; the spirit's eye .... 133 

Hospitality: A virtue generally honored; examples . 151 
Hume, David: His philosophy, his skeptical view . . 11 
Idolatry: Prohibited in the second commandment . 98 

Imagination: Productive, reproductive, fancy. . 269-270 
Industry: Defined; when a virtue; Scripture illustrations m 
Institutions: Numerous; as to character — rgood, bad, 200; 
as to the idea — Dr. Lieber's idea; Dr. Arnold's, 203; 
as to kind, natural, logical, artificial .... 205 

Juvenal: His advice in the care of children . . . 149 
Kant: His ground-principle, 22; his categorical-impera- 
tive — universal law; his philosophy critical, and spe- 
cially the practical gives an a priori character to 
knowledge .......... 23 

Knowledge: Conditioned on a sensuous content, 23; when 

good, when evil ....... 20 

Labor: Ethic and practical views, 136; of Walter Scott 
and Carlyle, 138; its office, wages and value, 247; its 
union, 249; when abnormal ...... 252 

Law: Of the moral nature; its certainty; moral law de- 
fined, 45; its authority, 47; written moral defined, 46; 
stringent, necessary, 99; obedience to it, 179; ex- 
ception .......... 180 

Land: The perfect title to it in the United States . . 172 
Liberty: The substance of it; guarantees; independence; 
autonomy, 158; its very substance is in the character 
of the man, 160; religious — needs protection, 162; its 
law, 163; personal, the rule of it, 164; • civil — arises 
from: means what, 177; of speech — its fair side, 185; 
the anarchist — idea of it, 186; the correct theory, 187; 
J. S. Mill's limitations, 188; Leo XIII's limitations . 189 
Locke: His theoretical ground of knowledge . . . 11 

Love: As moral consists in what; is pure feeling, but under 
guidance of reason is called rational; develops in ac- 
cord with its object; its constitutional law, 74; as to 
God; as to man; as to one's country, 75; its ground- 
principle in the love of the true and the right, 78; 



INDEX. 307 



self-love instinctive, sui generis; relates to preserva- 
tion; is not selfish, 79; love to neighbor grounded in 
moral love; scope of the second great commandment, 80 
Man: His nature fourfold, 39; a spirit .... 41 

Magna Charta: Its origin; value; articles . . . 160 
Marriage: The authority for it, 226; its law, blessings, re- 
quirements, 227; its prerequisites, 231; divorce . 233 
Mercy: As defined in Scripture, 105; in Shakspeare . . 106 
Mind: Dominates matter; the creative preceded laws of 

nature . . - . . • . . . . 24-25 
Metaphysic: Its meaning and as applied to morals . . 92 
Morality: Relates to the rational, sentimental, spiritual; 
its ground and its ultimate end distinguished, 27; dis- 
tinct from religion vet inseparable; defined by Web- 
ster 29 

Moral: "The moral" distinct from "the religious," 30; its 

origin constitutional . . . . . . • . 36 

Moral Nature: Its function and auxiliary powers, 40; its 

relation to the intellect and will .... 70 

Moral Law: Its ethic utterance in the ten command- 
ments . . . . . . . . . ' . 98 

Moses: His objections valid; subsequent alacrity, 33; meek 

above all men ........ 104 

Moore, Hannah: On economy . . . . . . 114 

Nature: Her leadings, 16; her elements lie concealed . 24 
Noumenal: Is the realm in nature beyond our cognition 24 

Obedience: The ground of duty 24 

Observation: Of the frivolous, a waste of time . . 144 

Oaths: The true ideal of Jesus 192 

Patriotism: Noted instances, 122; how inspired, 123; the 

abuse of the sentiment . . ... ... . 124 

Parental: duties — the law of authority — firm not harsh 

patience; the Scripture precept '. . . 147-148 
Porter: President, his view and theory of the conscience . 59 

Pollok: His lines on friendship 125 

Philanthropy: John Brown's lines 151 

Puritan and Pilgrim \ 88 

Prayer: The duty of it; instances 129 



308 INDEX. 



Praise: A duty and a delight 130 

Principle: As related to practice 87 

Plato: Sought philosophy in nature; held the chief-good to 
be in things requisite; places happy life in virtue and in 
whatever adds to it; his ideal republic, 14; his educa- 
tional scheme, 15; its defect, 16; his Divine in the idea 15 
Pythian Apollo: Enjoins us "to know ourselves" . 19 

Peripatetic: Follows nature; his happy life calls for con- 
ditions consonant with nature; as distinguished from 

the Stoic 21 

Phenomenal: The world we perceive and know . . 24 

Pure: The pure in heart; pure walk . . . . .231 
Purity: The hearthstone virtue . 118 

Prudence: Webster's definition; Scripture illustrations, 

115; the Scottish bard, 116; prudence for girls . . 117 

Reason: Defined, its function 40 

Religion: defined by Webster, by Cicero; false ideas of it, 
29; true religion as related to morality; is a natural 
law in man; is a sentiment of love for the Supreme; 
could have no existence without the moral element, 30; 
false religion known by immoral doctrine and worship, 
31; its object; its origin in nature; its cultivation, 49; 
leavens morality; its focal points, 50; its ethic charac- 
ter; question of duty 142 

Reputation: Its value; mean motives injure . . ' . 199 
Right: Primarily grounded in the Divine constitution, 83; 

secondarily in man's nature; in authority . . 86 

Rights: conflict; example, 164; and duties reciprocal, 166; 

right to property; its origin, 168; civil . . . 177 

Saul: Responsible for his fault . . .' . 46 

Soul: The seat of the affections; its states . . . .41 

Science: Of religion — objections to it, y.\ excludes secta- 
rianism ......... 38 

Schlegel: His view of the soul in philosophy of life . 271 
Sovereignty: Of God none question .... 98 

Self-Control: a virtue; its definition .... 117 

Sincerity: Defined; illustrated 120 

Scott, Walter: on patriotism 122 



INDEX. 309 



Solomon: His prayer f 129 

Self-Preservation: A natural instinct; as a duty . . 135 
Self-Examination: Requires moral courage . . 136 

Seneca: On the employment of time 143 

Sentiments: When affections become sentiments . 74 

Sabbath: Governmental inquiry and discussion, 210; 
reason for its institution, 213; the time, 215; why 
enters into the civil code, 215; a universal law with 
special applications; Scripture precepts; its true spirit- * 
ual observance, 217; legislation relative to it . . 224 
Schools. Public: As an institution natural, logical . . 209 
State: Its origin, idea, object, 236; what is due to it; what 

it owes ......... 237 

Suffrage: A conditional right; in U. S. too little restric- 
tion 183-184 

Substratum: For a certain form or order of nature . 24 

Taste and Culture: Advantages, 145; Dr. Blair . 291 
Theocracy: In the Jewish nationality, its purpose . 235 

Time: The ethic of its use 143 

Temper: Its ethic character; value of a good temper . 142 
Temperance: Secured by discretion; its advantages . 141 

Tully: On virtue and decency no 

Transcendental: As to faculties determining phenomena 24 
"The True," and the Right Loved for its Own Sake: 
Dominates in all moral relation, 28; distinguished 
from truth ......... 4:5 

Universal: Principle, 22; law. 23; as to the supreme . 24 
Understanding: Its faculties; its function ... 39 

Vanderbilt, Cor.: His interest in restriction of R. R. 

traffic . . . . . . . . 224 

Veracity: Nature inclines to truth, 190; enforced in Scrip- 
ture precepts 191 

Virtues: General view 108 

Vocation: The ethic of it 139 

Webster, Daniel: On the patriotism of '76, 122; expounds 

as to church, state, religion 238 

Wayland: His moral science, 45; authority of conscience 57 
Williams, Roger: The personification of soul liberty, 

88; his friendly greeting by Indians . . . 152 



310 INDEX. 



Will: The will, the first object in moral vision, 58; its func- 
tion; its freedom, 70; the idea in its freedom; will 
action is spontaneity, 71; the true doctrine of the 
will, its definition; its personality .... 72 

Whately, Bishop: His Sabbath law a mere positive one . 225 
Worship: In spirit and in truth — Jesus taught — obedience 

requisite , 99 



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